The GPMB is pleased to share its new statement addressing equity in the collective response to mpox.
In this statement, the GPMB warns that the current outbreak of mpox due to a new clade has the potential to be the beginning of a new pandemic and urges the global community to apply the lessons learnt from COVID-19.
As the outbreak progresses, the GPMB urges the global community to prioritize equity to ensure a faster, better and more efficient response to mpox.
As articulated in the statement, the GPMB calls for the implementation of the following equity-driven actions:
- Monitor the outbreak with an equity lens.
- Enhance equitable primary and community healthcare systems’ response.
- Ensure equitable access to medical countermeasures.
- Engage communities, civil society and vulnerable groups in prevention, preparedness, and response.
- Ensure financing to bridge the equity gaps.
- Mitigate the economic and social impact of the disease spread on vulnerable groups.
The GPMB further emphasizes that, by addressing equity in the early response, the global health community has the capacity to contain the mpox outbreak and avoid severe health and socioeconomic damages in affected countries and the entire world. Successfully doing so will help reestablish some of the trust lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2024, the GPMB issued a vision statement Equity in pandemic preparedness: bridging divides for a safer world, articulating the GPMB’s priorities for improving equity in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR). The actions outlined in this vision statement should be at the center of the global response to mpox.