Report Highlights:
- Continuing expansion of equitable access to diagnostics and vaccines is necessary to achieve and sustain elimination of human-to-human mpox transmission.
- Emerging evidence suggests that mpox vaccines are equally effective regardless of MPXV clade.
- The ability to distinguish between viral clades through diagnostic methods and sequencing also remains critically important to monitor epidemiologic patterns, modes of transmission, viral evolution and actual or potential effectiveness of countermeasures.
- Mpox is one of many priorities competing for constrained health system resources. Some steps can be taken without substantial additional investment.
There are two known clades of monkeypox virus (MPXV) with distinct epidemiological patterns and clinical outcomes. Clade I MPXV occurs primarily in East and Central Africa, where cases have been rising for decades and are associated with higher case fatality than clade II MPXV, which first appeared in West Africa.
A major emergence of mpox linked to clade II began in Nigeria 2017, which since 2022 subsequently spread to all regions of the world. In the United States for example, from 1 October 2023 – 30 April 2024, a total of 1,802 probable and confirmed clade II mpox cases were reported to the CDC.
Currently, there is also a major outbreak of clade I virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where cases have been on the rise for decades. Since the beginning of the year, over 6500 cases and 345 deaths have been reported in the DRC. Almost half of these are among children under the age of 15 years.
Following the declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and global efforts to curb the outbreak amidst continuing concern of the public health burden of mpox in Africa, the overarching goal of this framework is to achieve and sustain elimination of human-to-human transmission of mpox.
This framework emphasizes integrating efforts of all health programs, including epidemiological disease surveillance; sexual health services, risk communication and community engagement; as well as primary health care, immunization and other clinical services.
READ MORE:
Strategic framework for enhancing prevention and control of mpox (2024–2027). World Health Organization, May 2024.