World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has announced the rise of monkeypox cases and declared that the disease is now a global health emergency.

The declaration comes after a spike in monkeypox cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighbouring African countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. 

At the emergency committee on Wednesday, Tedros said: “The emergence last year and rapid spread of clade 1b in DRC, which appears to be spreading mainly through sexual networks, and its detection in countries neighbouring DRC is especially concerning, and one of the main reasons for my decision to convene this Emergency Committee.”

He continued: “But we are not dealing with one outbreak of one clade – we are dealing with several outbreaks of different clades in different countries with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk.”

The International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee informed the Director-General that the various clades of monkeypox may spread outside of Africa. Last year the clade 1b virus in the DRC was transmitted “mainly through sexual networks”.

According to reports, this clade is considered to be more lethal and has a higher rate of transmission from person to person. The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared the situation a public health emergency on Tuesday (August 13).

Tedros revealed that WHO released $1.45 million in contingency funds and plans to release more in the coming days for the endemic. WHO’s plan would require an initial $15 million for surveillance, preparedness and response activities. The organisation will appeal to donors to fund the rest of the response plan.

When it was declared a global health emergency in 2022, vaccines mostly aided in the decline of a different strain of monkeypox that was common among men who have sex with men.