Mpox virus outbreak: African countries say travel bans would be unfair as WHO declares global health emergency

France has promised to donate 100,000 mpox jabs to countries affected by the mpox outbreak.

Prime minister Gabriel Attal said the country would deploy the vaccines through the European Union.

It comes as the World Health Organisation called the international community to boost production and urged countries to prioritise vaccination campaigns.

Hundreds of vaccination sites have been set out as a response of a potential outbreak in France.

Mr Attal said on X: “Our health system is on high alert. We are ready to face all scenarios and all risks. As I announced on Friday, travelers going to or returning from areas where the virus is circulating are now systematically informed about the precautionary measures to adopt.

“232 vaccination sites are already open across the territory. And many more will be available. We aim to be ready to face all scenarios and all risks.”

A World Health Organisation official stressed on Tuesday that mpox, regardless of whether it is the new or old strain, is not the new COVID, as authorities know how to control its spread.

“We can and must tackle mpox together,” said Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, during a UN media briefing.

“So will we choose to put the systems in place to control and eliminate mpox globally? Or we will enter another cycle of panic and neglect? How we respond now and in the years to come will prove a critical test for Europe and the world,” he added.

The clade 1b variety has caused global concern because it seems to spread more easily through routine close contact.

Kluge said that the focus on the new clade 1 strain will also help in the fight against the less severe clade 2 variety that has spreading globally since 2022, allowing Europe to improve its response through better health advice and surveillance.

About 100 new cases of the clade 2 mpox strain are now being reported in the European region every month, added Kluge.

Mpox transmits through close physical contact, including sexual contact, but unlike previous global pandemics such as COVID-19 there is no evidence it spreads easily through the air.

Health authorities need to be on alert and flexible in case there are new, more transmissible clades or ones that change their transmission route, but there are no recommendations for people to wear masks, said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic.

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday declared mpox a global health emergency in response to the growing number of cases both in Africa and other continents.

Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms like fever, chills and body aches. People with more serious cases can develop characteristic lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.

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Before the spring of 2022, cases in the UK were usually associated with travel to or from West or Central Africa.

However, in May of that year sustained transmission of the virus was identified in the UK, leading to a large outbreak mostly in men who are gay, bisexual or have sex with other men.

A vaccination programme was launched in the UK in the summer of 2022 and closed the following July.

According to the UKHSA, there were 3,732 confirmed and highly probable mpox cases reported in the UK up to December 31, 2022. In 2023 and up to July 31 this year, 286 cases were reported.

Of these, 269 were in England – with 116 patients presumed to have caught the virus in the UK and 82 outside of the country.

Argentine authorities quarantined a cargo ship in the Paraná River near the inland grains port of Rosario over a suspected case of mpox onboard

The cargo, from Brasil, was stopped after officials detected one of the crew members had developed symptoms similar to the virus.

Fernando Morales, president of industry body the Argentine Naval League, said that a Liberian-flagged ship had been ordered to drop anchor in the river while a test on a crew member was carried out.

“A crew member with fever and weakness was taken to a hospital in San Nicolas. There they carried out some tests and they say that in principle it could be mpox,” Morales said, adding that the diagnosis was not yet confirmed.

Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said.

Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, as the person had arrived on 14 August from an African country where it was spreading, Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, told Reuters.

African health officials have called the international community not to impose travel bans on countries dealing with an outbreak of mpox.

Africa CDC’s head Jean Kaseya said: “Don’t punish Africa. We hear from here and there that you want to apply travel ban, we need solidarity, we need you to provide appropriate support, this vaccine is expensive.

“I clearly request our partners to stop thinking about travel bans against Africa, that will bring us back to the unfair treatment from the Covid period and not help the world to move forward.”

Mr Kaseya hoped vaccines can coon arrive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the outbreak is believed to have originated from.

He added there had been collaboration between countries and health organisations but has warned community-level testing centres are not enough.

Pakistan says it is introducing new screening at airports after confirming at least one case of mpox infection, days after the World Health Organisation declared a global emergency over the virus.

Health officials are concerned about a new deadlier strain of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, that has spread through several African countries.

The case reported in Pakistan involves a patient who had recently returned from a Gulf country. Pakistan’s health ministry said it had yet to determine the strain of the virus.

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