🎬Outbreak(s)

Good morning. This week, we’re celebrating World Calligraphy Day. A day set aside to appreciate the dying art of writing…on paper. While we think love letters would look perfect on paper, we can’t help but wonder why electronic keyboards took over. Then we remembered what doctors’ prescriptions used to look like.

— Chibuike Uzor, Tayo Davies

HEALTH

Mpox makes yet another (un)timely resurgence

You will find fewer things on Earth more committed than a virus, wreaking havoc on select countries in Africa every other year, during the rainy season.

And the newest kid on the bloc: Monkeypox. More commonly known as mpox.

Continental emergency?

The WHO yesterday declared the mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries a global emergency. The disease, which presents with distinctive rashes on the hands and feet that swell and eventually rupture or crust away, is rarely deadly.

However, the trend isn't as promising in the DRC and the 14 other African countries that have reported cases in 2024. In 2022, a global mpox outbreak was reported, affecting more than 70 countries. The average fatality rate then was 1%. In the current outbreak, the number of reported cases is up 160% from 2023, with deaths up 19% from the previous year.

Race to a vaccine

 Except drug manufacturers are in the mood to repeat some late 2020 magic by churning out vaccines from scratch, it’s safe to say we’re a while away from “an mpox vaccine”. However, the WHO intends to take baby steps anyway, with Amita Gupta, a professor at Johns Hopkins saying “part of the reason for labeling mpox as a global emergency is to mobilize donor resources and countries into action.”

Bad timing? Besides competing for attention, the mpox outbreak also represents a stretch on already lean healthcare budgets. The Democratic Republic of Congo with 96% of reported mpox cases is also the hotspot location for the most recent cholera outbreak with 80% of all reported cases. CU.

Headline Quickie

• Ivory Coast: Ouattara & Gbagbo set for potential meeting. With the 2025 Presidential elections to be held in Ivory Coast, the former President, Laurent Gbagbo is attempting to lead a coalition of opposition leaders against the current president, Alassane Ouattara. Neither have officially declared their intentions to run in 2025 but their meeting could potentially shape the partisan landscape of the country in view of the elections.

• Egypt launches carbon market. Egypt officially launched its carbon market yesterday opening doors for countries and companies to offset their emissions by obtaining carbon credits. The move is expected to generate substantial revenue (in a $909 billion market) while reducing carbon emissions by 17 million tonnes annually.

• Sudan: Peace talks commence. United States-initiated peace talks aimed at stopping Sudan’s 16-month-long crisis took off yesterday in Geneva. However, there was one notable absentee, the Sudanese military, whose refusal to join talks leaves little hope for a ceasefire. It is hoped that the discussions in Geneva will end the violence and broaden humanitarian access in Darfur.