RD opening remarks at the Member State briefing following WHO’s declaration of mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern

^{*Errors and omissions excepted (E&OE)}

Dear distinguished guests and colleagues,

As you are aware, on 14 August, the WHO Director-General determined that the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). That is WHO's highest level of alarm - under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR).

The detection and rapid spread of a new sub clade of mpox in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo - clade 1b - is worrying.

In the past month, about 100 cases of clade 1b have been reported in four countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo that have not reported mpox before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Last Thursday, Sweden became the first country outside Africa to confirm mpox clade 1b in an individual with travel history to Central Africa.

Also concerning is evidence that clades 1a and 1b cause more severe disease than clade 2 (which caused the global outbreak of mpox of which a Public Health Emergency of International Concern was declared in 2022).

We are dealing with several outbreaks of different clades, in different countries, with various modes of transmission.

The situation requires a coordinated global response to contain the spread of this disease.

Today, you will hear from Gina, Tamano, Sean and my team on key actions to take.

What's required is for us to not only scale up our surveillance, prevention and response - but to do so, together.

In the Western Pacific Region, we have activated our Incident Management System to streamline coordination during this response.

We are coordinating with our headquarters and country offices, as well as partners.

Each Member State in our Region has a role to play as we work, as one, to contain the spread of this disease.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Government of Japan for your unwavering dedication to global solidarity is demonstrated through your donations of the LC-16 vaccine to countries experiencing outbreaks and needing to protect their at-risk populations.

Thank you for working with those most in need.
To all our Member States, I call on each of you to join forces with us in the days and weeks ahead to ensure a truly coordinated global response to the current outbreak.
Together we are stronger.
Together we can save lives. 

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