2024-08-14 17:54:49
Faced with a resurgence of measles cases in Africa, the World Health Organization launched the highest international health alert on Wednesday, August 14.
“Today the Emergency Committee met and informed me that they consider this situation to constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. I accept this opinion“, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.This is a situation we should all be concerned about“he said.
Only the head of the World Health Organization can initiate a public health emergency of international concern based on the recommendations of an ad hoc expert committee.
The 15 members of this committee who attended the meeting”All“We believe the criteria for declaring an international public health emergency have been met,” Dimie Ogoina, chair of the expert panel, told reporters.
The World Health Organization had already made such a decision in 2022, when the MPOX epidemic carried by clade (group) 2b spread throughout the world.
But the current outbreak, which began in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is now limited to Africa, has its own peculiarities, starting with a more contagious and dangerous virus. It is caused by clade 1 and the more dangerous variant clade 1b. Its mortality rate is estimated at 3.6%.
On Tuesday, the African Union health agency announced that “public health emergency”, its highest level of alert in the face of the growing MPO epidemic on the African continent, issued a “clear call to action” to stop its spread.
The number of cases will increase by 160% in 2024
According to data released last year, a total of 38,465 cases of monkeypox, including 1,456 deaths, have been reported in 16 African countries since January 2022, with the number of cases in 2024 increasing by 160% from the previous year. week released by health agencies.
“WHO is committed to coordinating the global response in the coming days and weeks, working closely with each affected country and leveraging its presence on the ground to prevent transmission, treat infected people and save lives“Dr. Tedros confirmed to reporters.
At the beginning of the meeting, he warned: “We are facing multiple outbreaks in different countries, different branches, different transmission modes and different risk levels”.
How does mpox spread?
Mpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but can also be spread through close physical contact with an infected person.
Clade 1b exhibits a generalized rash, whereas previous strains were characterized by localized rashes and lesions on the mouth, face, or genitals.
Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), with the spread of the clade 1 subtype and has since been largely restricted to the western and central countries of the country, with widespread infection among patients. caused by animals.
In 2022, a global epidemic carried by the clade 2 subtype spread to approximately one hundred countries where the disease is not endemic, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men.
Faced with this global outbreak of cases, the World Health Organization subsequently issued the highest alert in July 2022 and lifted the highest alert less than a year later in May 2023. About 140 people have died among the cases.
“Over the past month, approximately 90 cases of clade 1b have been reported in four countries surrounding the Democratic Republic of Congo that have never reported measles before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda“Dr Tedros recalled in front of the emergency committee.
Issued the highest global alert”could enable WHO to access emergency response funding. For other countries, the same priorities remain: investing in diagnostic capacity, public health response, treatment support and vaccination. it’s not easy”, says Marion Koopmans, Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
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