The World Health Organisation has declared the mpox outbreak a global health emergency
A man who caught mpox in the last global outbreak of the virus has spoken out about the ‘horrendous’ symptoms he suffered that left him ‘unable to move, drink or eat’.
Last week the World Health Organisation declared the current mpox outbreak a global health emergency, with it now ‘very likely’ that the disease has already found its way in to the United Kingdom via a new variant.
The deadlier strain of mpox – previously known as monkeypox – was first reported in Europe via a case in Sweden. Cases of the clade 1b strain were also reported in Pakistan after first being confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Health officials believe it is the worst variant of the virus to date, with WHO’s Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declaring a ‘coordinated international response is needed to stop outbreaks and save lives’.
So far, more than 15,600 cases of mpox have been reported in 13 African countries. Tragically, 537 people have died so far.
Harun Tulunay, from London, caught mpox in the summer of 2022 during the last outbreak of the virus.
He has now spoken out about the symptoms he had at the time as worries grow that mpox will spread across the UK in the coming weeks.
Harun wasn’t sure how he caught mpox two years ago, with the test results leading to confusion and overwhelming anxiety as he got more and more ill.
Harun Tulunay in hospital with mpox (Harun Tulunay/WHO)
Speaking to Sky News, Harun revealed that fly-like symptoms were the first to manifest. He suffered from a high fever and muscle aches across his body.
After this, lesions and scars started to appear across his body.
“After two weeks of horrendous high fever and pain, I wasn’t able to move or drink or eat anymore – at that point I was hospitalised,” he said.
Harun spent 11 days in hospital before isolating for a further two weeks after being discharged. His scars for the most part have healed except for a small mark on his nose.
As a result of his illness, Harun received the mpox vaccination against future strains of the virus. Now he wants it to be rolled out across the world, especially so in Africa where infections are spreading worse than anywhere else.
Harun is speaking out about his experience suffering from mpox (Sky News)
He said: “There’s only one company that produces the vaccinations and there is high demand, and there is not enough vaccinations produced by countries around the world.”
In the past month, more than 100 laboratory-confirmed cases of the clade 1b strain have been reported in four countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported mpox before – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Experts believe the true number of cases to be higher as a large proportion of clinically compatible cases have not been tested.
Last week, the Director-General triggered the process for Emergency Use Listing for mpox vaccines, which will accelerate vaccine access for lower-income countries which have not yet issued their own national regulatory approval. Emergency Use Listing also enables partners including Gavi and UNICEF to procure vaccines for distribution.
In the United Kingdom, the UK Health Security Agency has said the risk ‘is currently considered low’. To add to this, the existing mpox vaccine is said to be effective against the new strain.
