GENEVA (Switzerland): Mpox no longer represents a global public health emergency, the WHO said Friday, following a steady decline in cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other affected countries.
The World Health Organisation declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in August 2024 after a two-pronged mpox epidemic broke out, primarily in the DRC.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lifted the status following Thursday’s quarterly meeting of the UN health agency’s emergency committee on the mpox outbreak.
Tedros said there was now a better understanding of what was driving transmission, while the most affected countries had enhanced their capacity to respond.
“Lifting the emergency declaration does not mean the threat is over, nor that our response will stop,” said Tedros, noting that the situation remained a continental emergency in Africa.
“The possibility of continued flare-ups and new outbreaks remains,” he said.
The African Union’s public health watchdog said Thursday that “the current downward trends are not yet stable enough” to justify lifting the emergency at the continental level.
This year until the end of July, more than 34,000 confirmed cases worldwide have been reported to the WHO, including 138 deaths, from 84 countries. More than 15,000 of the cases were in the DRC.
Mpox is caused by a virus from the same family as smallpox. It can be transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed between people through close physical contact.
The disease, which was first detected in humans in 1970 in the DRC, then known as Zaire, causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can be deadly. – AFP
