The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday he will convene an emergency committee to decide whether the latest Monkeypox (mpox) virus outbreak in Africa represents a global emergency.
Since the beginning of 2023, the current mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has infected around 27,000 people, and killed more than 1,100, most of them children, according to Reuters.
WHO declared the spread of mpox beyond Congo, as 50 more cases had been confirmed and more were suspected in four countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
In the light of this, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, at a press briefing in Geneva, that he would convene a committee of independent international experts to advice the WHO chief about whether the mpox outbreak is a “public health emergency of international concern.”
According to the WHO chief, the emergency committee will convene “as soon as possible,” but he didn’t provide a specific date for the meeting.
Tedros said: “We have released $1 million from the WHO contingency fund for emergencies to support scale up of the response and we plan to release more in the coming days.”
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said that mpox cases in Africa have increased 160% and deaths have surged by 19%, compared to the same period last year, reported the Associated Press (AP).
Earlier this year, scientists detected a deadlier and more contagious strain of mpox in a Congolese mining town. The mpox virus spreads via close contact with infected people.
WHO declared mpox a global emergency in 2022, after it spread to more than 70 countries. Before that, the disease had mostly appeared in sporadic epidemics in central and West Africa, typically through contact with infected animals.
