evidence: Shares of Danish biotech Bavarian Nordic surged on Thursday after the company reported strong earnings and a large order of its mpox vaccine, extending its gains this year as nations mobilize to combat an escalating outbreak of the disease in Africa. [...] World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared a public health emergency of international concern last week in response to an outbreak of mpox in central Africa. The decision came on the heels of a similar announcement by the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent’s top public health body, which warned there had been at least 17,000 cases and more than 500 deaths from the virus this year so far. More than a dozen countries have been affected, though the outbreak is predominantly centered on the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, spreads primarily through close contact with infected people, animals or contaminated materials like toweling and often causes symptoms including a fever, swollen lymph nodes and characteristic, pus-filled rash. While the disease is normally mild, it can be lethal, and young children, pregnant people and people with compromised immune systems are at the highest risk of poor outcomes. There are two named groups of viruses that can cause mpox—broadly split into genetic groupings called clade I (1) and clade II (2)—and the variant responsible for this outbreak is an offshoot of clade I called clade Ib.