Clinical Forum on (Re) Emerging Infectious Diseases

What's New

• The Clinical Forum on (Re) Emerging Infectious Diseases successfully took place on Tuesday, 7 February 2023.
• Registrations are still open!
• Enduring Materials of the Mpox Clinical Forum 2022 are available to be revisited here.
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About this Program

Several countries in West and Central Africa have been reporting human Mpox infection since the 1970s but despite this, it has remained a neglected tropical infection that has been underfunded and under-researched. Sporadic exported cases outside of Africa have occurred several times over the years with very short chains of (mainly household or HCW) transmission beyond the index case. This situation changed in early May 2022 when the first cases of this global outbreak were reported to the WHO.

Since then, there have been near-simultaneous outbreaks in multiple countries which now affect at least all 6 WHO regions and at least 79 countries. The WHO declared the situation a PHIEC in late July. The outbreaks are occurring almost exclusively in sexually active gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (GBMSM). Infections in previously affected African countries are now accounting for 2% of the globally reported cases.

Similar to the Mpox outbreak, the WHO recently reported a surge of Ebola infections in Uganda (September 2022). There have been more than 100 confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease with a case fatality rate of almost 40%. With strict travel restrictions, the Uganda government was able to contain the outbreak.

There is an urgent need for education for clinicians in most countries who may never have seen or treated anyone with human Mpox infection and these re-emerging infectious diseases. There are many unanswered questions about transmission, asymptomatic disease, treatment, and vaccine efficacy for pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis, not to mention the evolution of a new phylogenetic classification nomenclature.

This program will aim to provide rapid education for those caring for people with human Mpox infection and these re-emerging infectious diseases from the perspective of clinicians previously and newly experienced with the disease.

This program is developed from the Mpox Clinical Forum in September 2022. The Mpox Clinical Forum in September 2022 was attended by 176 live participants from 58 countries, with 100% of them agreeing that this program increased their knowledge of Mpox, and 99% agreeing that the program was beneficial for the clinical management of people living with Mpox.

General Information 

Practical Information