The European Commission pledges support for Africa.

On 14 August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a "public health emergency of international concern". This was due to a renewed increase in mpox cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among other nations. At the same time, the first case of the mpox variant clade 1 was confirmed in Europe. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union (EU) has learnt to take such viral diseases seriously and is acting in a coordinated manner.

Low risk for Europe

On 4 September, both the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and, two weeks later on 18 September, the plenary session in Strasbourg dealt with the current mpox outbreak. In its status reports, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) currently classifies the risk of the new variant for the population in Europe as "low". Stella Kyriakides, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, therefore recently emphasised that it was not necessary to declare a health emergency in the EU. Nonetheless, the ECDC has issued recommendations on prevention options and travel advice. It is up to each EU Member State to implement this. However, some parliamentarians demanded more: Instead of inconsistent travel advice from the Member States, a common approach is needed at European level.

Africa in focus: 566,500 vaccine doses promised

Kyriakides explained that 200,000 vaccine doses will be available for the population of the Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of September. The EU's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) procured the vaccine doses from the pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic. Further doses of vaccine have been and are being donated voluntarily by individual Member States, including Germany. According to information from Africa, ten million vaccine doses are needed. Parliamentarians criticised the fact that not all Member States were showing solidarity in providing additional vaccine doses and supporting their African partners. They called on the European Commission to make the vaccine stocks of all EU Member States transparent and spoke out in favour of more intensive cooperation. Commenting on the demands, the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said that vaccine donations are not only a matter of solidarity, but also serve as an appropriate public health response, as they could prevent a health crisis. However, each Member State decides for itself on its willingness to donate.

What is mpox?

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), mpox (also: monkeypox) is a zoonosis and thus, a viral infectious disease that can be transmitted from infected animals to humans. Transmission from person to person is possible, especially in close contact. The disease is caused by the mpox virus, which has two genetic virus variants (clades): the Central African clade 1 and the West African clade 2. A further distinction is made between variant a and b for both clades. Infections with clade 1, which are associated with more severe courses of the disease, have so far mainly been observed in Africa. The mpox virus variants circulating worldwide since 2022 are assigned to clade 2b.

No high number of cases expected in Germany

In May 2022, cases of mpox clade 2b were identified in Germany for the first time. After a sharp rise, the number of cases has fallen again significantly since August 2022. Even today, isolated cases are still being reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). So far, only mpox infections with clade 2b have been detected in Germany. According to the authorities, mpox outbreaks of clade 1 cannot be completely ruled out in Germany either. However, a sharp increase in the number of cases should not be expected.