2024-08-18 03:14:55
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox (mpox) an international public health emergency on Wednesday, its highest alert level.
“The emergency committee met today and informed me that it believes the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that recommendation,” said the director general of the UN health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“This is a situation that should concern us all,” he added during a press conference.
The head of the WHO is the only one who can declare such an emergency, on the advice of a committee of experts.
The 15-member committee deemed that the criteria for declaring an international public health emergency had been met, said the group’s chair, Dimie Ogoina.
The UN agency had already taken a similar decision in 2022, when there was a global outbreak of monkeypox caused by a strain known as clade IIb.
But the current epidemic, which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and is currently limited to Africa, has its own characteristics.
The more contagious and dangerous virus is caused by clade I and an even more dangerous variant, clade Ib. Its mortality rate is estimated at 3.6%.
The African Union’s health agency on Tuesday declared a “public health emergency,” its highest alert level, in response to the growing Mpox epidemic on the continent.
A total of 38,465 cases have been recorded in 16 African countries since January 2022, with 1,456 deaths.
In addition, there was a 160% increase in cases in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to data published last week by Africa CDC.
“We are facing multiple epidemics with different clades in different countries, with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk,” Tedros warned.
– «It won’t be easy» –
Known as monkeypox, mpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but is also transmitted through close physical contact with a person infected with the virus.
Clade Ib causes skin rashes all over the body, while previous strains were characterized by localized rashes and lesions on the mouth, face, or genitals.
Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in present-day DRC (formerly Zaire), with the spread of a clade I subtype and was regularly transmitted through contact with animals.
Declaring a global alert “may allow the WHO to access funds for emergency responses,” explained Arion Koopmans, a professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
“Otherwise, the same priorities remain: investing in diagnostic capacity, in the public health response, in support for treatment and vaccination. This will not be easy,” he added.
© Agence France-Presse
