The World Health Organization’s declaration of mpox as a global public health emergency means Canada must do its part to help stem outbreaks of the virus in Africa, experts say.
“Where there is a fire, we all put it out quickly and the whole village is safe. If you allow one house to burn in a village, sooner or later that fire is coming for you,” said Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair in epidemiology and global health at McGill University in Montreal.
The WHO’s declaration on Wednesday comes as mpox — formerly known as monkeypox — has surged in Congo and emerged in neighbouring Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, none of which have had reported cases of the virus before.
Other African countries have had outbreaks of different clades — or types — of mpox. An emergency committee of independent experts told WHO’s director-general they were concerned about the …