UN health agency seeks $135 mln for global mpox response plan

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 24: The head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) called for global concerted action to control a new mpox outbreak, announcing a response plan that would require at least $135 million over the next six months.
“Let me be clear: this new mpox outbreak can be controlled and can be stopped,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech to WHO member states in Geneva on Friday, later posted on social media platform X.
“Responding to this complex outbreak requires a comprehensive and coordinated international response,” he said, as cases spread beyond Africa to Europe and Asia, including Pakistan.
The briefing was held just over a week after he declared that MPOX was a public health emergency of international concern.
Tedros said, “The global outbreak first emerged in 2022, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases reported since then. While the virus continues to circulate at low levels, Africa has seen an unprecedented increase and expansion.”
Transmission is mainly centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where there have been more than 16,000 suspected cases, including 575 deaths, this year alone.
The surge is being driven by two separate outbreaks of two strains of the mpox virus, or clades, in different parts of the country.
The rapid spread of a new offshoot, clade 1b, was the main reason behind his decision to declare mpox a global public health emergency on August 14.
“In the past month, cases of clade 1b have been reported in four countries neighboring the DRC that had not reported mpox before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. This week, cases have also been reported in Thailand and Sweden,” he said.
In response, WHO and partners have developed a plan to stop outbreaks of human-to-human transmission of mumps through coordinated efforts at the global, regional, and national levels.
“Let me be clear: this new mpox outbreak can be controlled and can be stopped,” Tedros added.
“Doing so requires concerted action between international agencies and national and local partners, civil society, researchers and manufacturers, and you, our Member States.”
He stressed that responses must be anchored in equity, global solidarity, community empowerment, human rights, and coordination across sectors.
The Global Mpox Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SRSP) focuses on implementing comprehensive surveillance and response strategies, as well as advancing research and equitable access to medical countermeasures.
“Our initial estimates are that the SPRP requires approximately $135 million over the next six months for the acute phase of the outbreak. That amount will likely increase as we update the plan in light of growing needs,” Tedros said.
He added that a dedicated WHO funding appeal would be released early next week.
The SPRP also called for minimizing zoonotic transmission and empowering communities to actively participate in outbreak prevention and control.
At the global level, emphasis is on strategic leadership, timely evidence-based guidance, and access to medical countermeasures for the most at-risk groups in affected countries.
In this regard, WHO is working with a range of international, regional, national, and local partners and networks to enhance coordination across the key areas of preparedness, readiness, and response.
WHO regional offices have also established Incident Management Support Teams (IMSTs) to lead preparedness and response activities, while staffing is being scaled up in affected countries.
Additionally, the Regional Office for Africa, in collaboration with the African Centres for Disease Control (CDC), will jointly spearhead the coordination of mpox response efforts, given that needs on the continents are greatest.
Meanwhile, health authorities at the national and sub-national levels will adapt strategies to current epidemiological trends.
Tedros noted that WHO had so far released roughly $1.5 million from a contingency fund for emergencies, with more allocations expected in the coming days “until funding from donors for the response comes in.”
He said, “The agency will coordinate the global response, working closely with each of the affected countries, to prevent transmission, treat those infected, and save lives.”