Given the scale of the epidemic, WHO convenes emergency committee

2024-08-08 18:02:18
On July 16, 2024, Jean Kakuru Biyambo, 48 years old, suffered from MPOX at the hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The mpox epidemic (formerly known as monkeypox, monkeypox) that has raged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for more than two years has increasingly worried international authorities. A new strain of the virus – known as a “clade” – thought to be more deadly has been discovered for the first time in several of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s neighbors.

ALSO READ | Monkeypox: A new, more dangerous strain emerging in Democratic Republic of Congo worries WHO and researchers

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Its lethality and spread prompted the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) to convene an emergency committee meeting on Wednesday, August 7, to determine whether the situation constitutes a major international public health emergency, the highest level of public health emergency. Health alert. Tedros said that based on the recommendations of the expert committee that will convene, Tedros will ultimately choose to declare a state of emergency. “ASAP”.

“Reduce the risk of transmission”

Therefore, WHO hopes to accelerate domestic and international mobilization to prevent the spread of the epidemic. “Public health emergencies of international concern make it possible to provide additional human, financial and logistical resources to reduce the risk of transmission, especially among high-risk groups.”emphasizes Antoine Gessain, Head of Epidemiology and Pathophysiology at the Institut Pasteur’s Carcinogenic Viruses Unit.

Such a decision could, in particular, help the UN organization further prioritize its means to combat MPOX within the rather limited budget that is voted on annually by member states. It is also the only tool it has today to keep all countries mobilized. “We don’t want the world to sit back and wait until the time is right to act; the time has come»Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s chief of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, insisted, ‘These pathogens do not respect national borders’.

The African Union health agency Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Thursday that it will ” perhaps” Statement, the week of August 12, “Public Health Emergency”which will allow it to release funds and get a response from the mainland – for the first time since its establishment in 2023.

Since the 1970s, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has had to face waves of epidemic mumps, a disease characterized by fever, swollen lymph nodes and a rash that can sometimes be fatal, especially in children who are malnourished or have weakened immune systems people and other vulnerable groups. Prevalent in the country is clade 1, considered more deadly than clade 2, the origin of the 2022 outbreak, in neighboring countries such as Nigeria. Children under 15 account for 85% of deaths, usually from secondary bacterial infections rather than the disease itself. However, they accounted for only 68% of cases.

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