Mpox Epidemic No Longer a Global Health Emergency, says WHO Director-General

2023-05-11 14:54:44

World Health Organization (OMS) announced this Thursday that The Mpox epidemic (formerly known as ‘monkey pox’) ceased to be a global health emergency, one year following warning regarding its spread.

(Also: Covid-19: which means that the ’emergency phase’ of the pandemic is over)

Mpox “no longer represents a public health emergency of international scope,” the WHO director-general told a press conference in Geneva. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusadding that it had followed the recommendation of the entity’s Emergency Committee, which analyzed the situation of the outbreak on a quarterly basis, whose cases have decreased by 90 percent in the last three months.

(You can read: The WHO ends more than 3 years of international emergency due to covid-19)

The international emergency for this disease, called mpox by the WHO, rises six days following the UN agency did the same in the case of the covid-19 pandemicalso in this case due to the decrease in cases and deaths, so that this level of maximum alert is only maintained in the case of polio.

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“I am pleased to declare that mpox is no longer an international emergency, but as with covid-19, that does not mean that it has ceased to be a public health challenge,” said Tedros, noting that “the virus still affects communities in all regions, including Africa” ​​where the disease is endemic.

I am pleased to declare that mpox is no longer an international emergency, but as with covid-19, that does not mean that it has ceased to be a public health challenge.

The expert added that monkeypox continues to pose risks for certain patients, such as people living with HIV, while the fact that infections continue to occur among people traveling internationally “shows that the threat continues.”

(Also: World health systems begin to recover following covid-19: WHO)

Tedros therefore called on the national health networks to maintain its capabilities for tracking and diagnosing possible cases “in order to act quickly if necessary”reinforcing its integration into health systems.

In the same press conference this Thursday, the vice president of the emergency committee for monkeypox, Nicola Low, recalled that the first cases of the outbreak occurred a year ago now (in the United Kingdom) and that the peak of infections occurred in July and August.

“Since then, the reduction in the number of infections has been impressive, the result of the action of public health networks, international cooperation and affected communities,” he said.

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Many of those affected were men who have sex with other men, prompting the WHO to fear that the outbreak would lead to cases of discrimination and homophobia as happened with HIV-AIDS in its dayalthough Tedros acknowledged today that in the end these problems were less than expected.

“We feared violent reactions towards the most affected communities that did not materialize in general terms and we are grateful for that,” he declared.

The monkeypox or monkeypox outbreak has affected at least 87,000 people in 111 countries, with 140 deaths. In the past three weeks, barely 200 cases have been declared in the worlda decrease of 34 percent from the previous 21 days.

(In addition: WHO stops recommending booster anticovid vaccine to the majority of the population)

In the ten months of the outbreak, America ended up being the region that reported the most infections, with more than 59,000 cases, followed by Europe (25,000) and Africa (1,500), the latter continent where there have already been outbreaks of the disease in the past four decades.

By country, the ones that confirmed the most cases were the United States (30,154), Brazil (10,940), Spain (7,551), France (4,146), Colombia (4,090), Mexico (4,010) and Peru (3,800).

WILLIAM MORENO HERNANDEZ

INTERNATIONAL WRITING

TIME

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