O WHERE, convenes a meeting on the mpox virus (blessing of the monkeys) to consider whether or not to declare the highest level of alert as the disease continues to spread in African countries.
The WHO meeting on the mpox virus, formerly known as the monkey blessing, will be held on Wednesday (14.8.2024).
The meetings of this committee are generally held behind closed doors.
“The committee will present to me its views on whether the outbreak constitutes a health emergency of international concern and, if so, will advise me on the provisional recommendations to be made,” summed up the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. through X.
He had announced on Wednesday August 7 that he would convene the committee “as soon as possible”.
A health emergency of international concern is the highest level of alert the WHO can declare. It is done by its general director, following the recommendation of the competent committee.
What is mpox
The disease, formerly known as monkey pox, is viral, transmitted from animals to humans and can also be transmitted from human to human, in case of close physical contact with a person who is a carrier.
A new strain of the virus that causes mpox, dubbed “clade 1b” (“variant 1b”) was identified in September 2023 in DR Congo, then in neighboring countries, raising concerns about its spread. According to the head of the WHO, variant 1b “causes more severe disease than variant 2”.
DR Congo is the worst-hit country: as of August 3, there had been 14,479 confirmed or suspected cases and 455 deaths – based on these numbers, the disease has a fatality rate of about 3% – according to the African public health agency Union.
mpox – which was first detected in humans in 1970 in then Zaire, now DR Congo – has as its main symptom the appearance of rashes on the genitals or in the mouth, while it can also be accompanied by high fever, headache, myalgia, lymphadenopathy, etc. etc.. The variant of the virus that causes the disease in the current interval is a mutation. To date, its spread is limited to countries in west and central Africa, with patients generally infected by animals that carry the virus.
In 2022 a global epidemic of variant 2 spread to about a hundred countries where the disease is not endemic, mainly among gay and bisexual men.
The WHO had declared the highest level of alert in July 2022 due to the increase in cases at the international level; it proceeded to lift it a year later, in May 2023.
The epidemic accounted for approximately 140 deaths out of a total of 90,000 cases.
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