The World Health Organization (WHO) declared this Wednesday the monkeypoxknown as Mpox, as a international public health emergencyits highest level of alert.
“The emergency committee met today and informed me that, in its opinion, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I accepted that recommendation,” he said. managing director of the UN health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and added that it is a situation that “should concern us all“.
He WHO chief is the only one who can declare an emergency of this type, with the advice of a committee of experts, which in this case, the 15 committee members They considered that the criteria for declaring an international public health emergency were met, he explained. Dimie Ogoinathe group’s president.
The body had taken into account 2022 a similar decision when a global outbreak of monkeypox caused by a strain known as clade IIb. But the current epidemicoriginated in Democratic Republic of the Congo and limited for the moment to Africa, has its own characteristics.
The virus, more contagious and dangerousis caused by clade I and an even more dangerous variant, clade Ib. Your rate of mortality It is estimated at a 3.6%“We are facing multiple epidemics with different clades in different countries, with different modes of transmission and levels of risk,” Tedros warned.
The African Union’s health agency declared on Tuesday a “public health emergency“its highest alert level, in response to the growing Mpox epidemic on the continent. A total of 38,465 cases were recorded in 16 countries Africans since January 2022, with 1,456 deaths.
In addition, a increase in cases of the 160% in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to data published last week by the Africa CDC.
Characteristics of monkeypox
He Mpoxknown as monkeypox, is a viral disease that spreads from the animal to humanbut which is also transmitted by physical contact close contact with a person infected with the virus.
He clade Ib causes skin rashes throughout the body, whereas earlier strains were characterized by localized rashes and lesions on the mouth, face, or genitals. Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the present-day Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), with the spread of a clade I subtype and was regularly transmitted through contact with animals.
Declare the maximum alert worldwide “It may allow WHO to access funds for emergency responses,” he explained. Arion Koopmansa professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam. “Otherwise, the same priorities remain: investing in diagnostic capacity, in the response to public healthhe treatment support and the vaccination“This will not be easy,” he added.
Source: Ambito
