THE World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global health emergency following an outbreak of monkeypox or mpox in Africa.

The highly contagious disease has been lingering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), where it has killed about 450 people and infected more than 13,700.

But mpox has been on the move, surging across central and east Africa. Concerns that the virus is already moving beyond the continent were reinforced after Sweden and Pakistan reported their first cases of mpox.

The case in Sweden is particularly worrying. It was found to be "clade 1b subclade," the same strain that has killed 1,100 people in the DR Congo since last year.

While not as deadly as Covid-19, a global outbreak of mpox could still cause major disruptions in international travel and put further strain on economies that have not fully recovered from the last pandemic.

Global economic losses from Covid-19 are estimated at more than $8 trillion. The Philippines absorbed the 13th high economic loss, with its GDP taking a 10-percent dive.

By the reckoning of the National Economic and Development Authority, the losses are at P41.4 trillion.

Another major health crisis could further sidetrack the country's Covid recovery efforts.

By making an early declaration of an emergency for mpox, the WHO wants to avoid the grievous mistake it made when it took weeks before acknowledging Covid-19 as a global health threat in 2021. By then, the virus was already raging uncontrolled in several countries, and the death toll was on a steep climb.

This time, the UN agency believes it is better prepared to handle another infectious disease threat.

Last year, it launched the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) initiative, a road map that "incorporates the latest tools and approaches for shared learning and collective action established during the Covid-19 pandemic and other recent public health emergencies."

PRET also calls for "better coordination and collaboration with other sectors such as agriculture." "Preparedness, prevention, and response activities must not be the province of the health sector alone," said WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Just as health emergencies have impacts across many sectors, so must our preparedness and response efforts span sectors, disciplines and pathogens."

PRET realigns WHO's approach to pandemic preparedness "through the application of a mode of transmission lens, rather than a focus on specific diseases," Ghebreyesus said.

PRET seeks to increase connectivity among stakeholders in pandemic preparedness planning through systematic coordination and cooperation.

The lack of a vaccine enabled Covid-19 to spread across the world at amazing speed. Hopefully, that will not be a problem in dealing with mpox, since there are vaccines for the disease.

Still, the WHO fears the present supply of mpox vaccines may not be enough once the disease surges.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the reality of vaccine inequality, with rich countries controlling access to the bulk of supply, leaving low-income countries fighting for what's left.

Covid vaccines were also used as a tool for geopolitical opportunism, as rival global blocs gave their allies priority in vaccine deliveries.

To avoid these complications, the WHO has called on mpox vaccine manufacturers to step up production and asked countries with mpox vaccine stockpiles to donate them to countries already facing outbreaks.

While no mpox cases have been reported in the Philippines, health authorities must begin to build up its defenses against the disease. Border screening for mpox must be up and running by this time.

The first cases of Covid-19 were able to slip into the country because the government dawdled in banning travelers from China. By the time flights from China were suspended, the infected foreigners who had arrived earlier had transmitted the virus to the locals.

There are precious lessons to be gleaned from Covid-19. Pandemic preparedness requires a strong and resilient health systems for a more effective detection of outbreaks and deployment of vaccines.

It also requires surveillance systems and laboratories to detect both human and zoonotic disease outbreaks. There must be an efficient supply chain and adequate stockpiles of essential goods and equipment.

We should take these lessons to heart.