Global mpox outbreak of 2022

The first human case of mpox was reported in 1970 in a nine-month-old boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From early May 2022 cases began appearing in countries where it had never been endemic, and for the first time many cases and clusters were reported at once in endemic and non-endemic countries.

The outbreak, caused by clade IIb virus, spread across Europe and the Americas and then to all six WHO regions. Cases were concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners. WHO's Emergency Committee could not reach a consensus on whether it was an emergency, and on 23 July 2022 the Director-General declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern without it. More than 16,000 cases had been reported from 75 countries and territories, with five deaths.

On 28 November 2022 WHO adopted mpox as the name of the disease, to be used alongside monkeypox for a year, after racist and stigmatizing language was observed online and in some communities. The emergency ended in May 2023. By August 2024 more than 100,000 laboratory-confirmed cases had been reported from over 120 countries since January 2022. Vaccines were used for protection both before and after exposure, with vaccination recommended within four days of contact.

A second emergency followed. On 14 August 2024 WHO declared a second Public Health Emergency of International Concern, over an upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries; a main reason was clade Ib, a new offshoot of clade I spreading mainly through sexual networks. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had reported more than 15,600 cases and 537 deaths that year, and Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda had confirmed more than 100 clade Ib cases.