For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkomfe.

Making headlines: Shivambu quits EFF, joins MK Party; WHO declares mpox a global public health emergency for second time in two years; And, Siga says mpox drug helps sickest, not all, patients; needs more data

Shivambu quits EFF, joins MK Party

Economic Freedom Fighters deputy president Floyd Shivambu today announced that he will be joining the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, after quitting the EFF.

Shivambu sent his resignation letter to EFF president Julius Malema on Wednesday.

Shivambu said he requested that he be released from his positions as an MP and all those he held in the EFF, noting that his non-renewal of his membership was not a vote of no confidence in the party.

He pointed out that he had served the organisation with discipline, highlighting that he would never abandon the cause of economic emancipation through freedom.

Malema accepted Shivambu’s resignation, which he said had brought the same pain he felt as when he received the news of the passing of his mother.

WHO declares mpox a global public health emergency for second time in two years

The World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak of the viral infection in Democratic Republic of Congo that has spread to neighbouring countries.

An emergency committee met earlier on Wednesday to advise WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on whether the disease outbreak constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern", or PHEIC.

PHEIC status is the WHO's highest level of alert and aims to accelerate research, funding and international public health measures and cooperation to contain a disease.

"It's clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives," said Tedros.

Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.

And, Siga says mpox drug helps sickest, not all, patients; needs more data

Siga Technologies' antiviral drug tecovirimat helped the very sickest mpox patients in a trial in Democratic Republic of Congo recover more quickly than those given a placebo, the company said, indicating the treatment could have a role in controlling the disease now spreading in parts of Africa.

Topline results from the trial, released yesterday, showed that the drug, branded TPOXX, helped those treated within seven days or with severe disease – classed as having 100 or more skin lesions – make “meaningful improvement”. However, the majority of patients in the trial did not recover more quickly than those given a placebo, which meant that the drug failed in the main goal of the study.

Mpox, a viral infection, was declared an emergency this week by the World Health Organisation after it spread from DRC to neighbouring countries.

There have been more than 17 000 suspected mpox cases in Africa this year and more than 500 deaths, according to data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, mainly among children in Congo.

The trial of TPOXX, originally developed and licensed for smallpox, began in 2022 during a previous mpox outbreak that the WHO declared a global health emergency.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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