FACT CHECK: Has WHO declared a lockdown over mpox outbreak?
Recurring posts on social media have claimed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared a lockdown over the mpox outbreak recorded across Africa.
The claims come amid a surge of cases found in countries across the continent including Nigeria.
“Why is WHO pushing for lockdowns so bad? They tried to market monkey pox back in 2022 and their campaign failed, they went back to the drawing board and rebranded it to Mpox,” an X user whose location reads Gaborone, Botswana capital city, tweeted.
Another X user also accused the UN health agency of enacting a lockdown so that millions of people could die.
The claims also appeared on Facebook.
On August 19, Game News Online, a Facebook page appearing to operate from South Africa, claimed that another lockdown is being discussed due to the global spread of the disease.
So far, the post has gathered 657 reactions, 114 comments, and 113 shares.
In addition, data mined from Civic Signal, research and analysis programme of Code for Africa, showed that keywords from the claim were featured in over 4,000 reports globally.
Chart showing the progression of stories covered over time on the alleged mpox lockdown
WHAT IS THE TRUE SITUATION OF THE CRISIS?
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a virus that originates from wild animals like rodents and is transmitted to humans with symptoms very similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.
Mpox was first detected in humans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1970. There are two subtypes of the virus: clade I and clade II.
The WHO declared mpox a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) for the first time in July 2022, and it lasted until May 2023, when cases were brought under control.
The last time the organisation made such a designation for a disease was in January 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
While the 2022 outbreak was driven by clade II of mpox, the current outbreak is fueled by a new strain of clade I, which can be more deadly.
The new strain, called clade Ib, was detected among sex workers in the remote mining town of Kamituga in the south Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in September 2023.
The disease has since spread across Africa with over 17,000 cases of the deadlier strain recorded, leading the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to declare a “public health emergency of continental security”.
Thereafter, the WHO announced mpox as a “public health emergency of international concern”.
The announcement is the latest from the health agency.
The WHO also debunked claims alleging that the mpox is the new COVID.
VERDICT
Claims that the WHO has declared a lockdown over the mpox outbreak are false. Such announcements will be found on the agency’s website.
