WHO chief lifts global mpox emergency

GENEVA: Mpox no longer represents a global public health emergency, the WHO said on Friday (Sep 5), following a steady decline in cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other affected countries.

The World Health Organization 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 told a press conference he had accepted their advice to lift the PHEIC.

"This decision is based on sustained declines in cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in other affected countries, including Burundi, Sierra Leone and Uganda," he said.

"Of course, lifting the emergency declaration does not mean the threat is over, nor that our response will stop," said Tedros, adding that the situation remained a continental emergency in Africa.

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.

It has two subtypes: clade 1 and clade 2.

The virus, long endemic in central Africa, gained international prominence in May 2022 when clade 2 spread around the world, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men.

The WHO declared a global health emergency in July 2022, but thanks to vaccination and awareness drives that helped stem the spread, that declaration was lifted in May 2023.

Just a year later, however, a new epidemic broke out, with both the original clade 1a strain and a new strain, clade 1b.