Mpox still a health emergency, says WHO

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LONDON (Reuters) -The Mpox outbreak continues to represent a public health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The WHO first declared the emergency in August, when an outbreak of a new form of mpox spread from the badly-hit Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.

The WHO had convened a meeting of its Emergency Committee and, agreeing with its advice, the WHO Director-General has determined that the upsurge of mpox continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

The decision is based on the rising number and continuing geographic spread of cases, operational challenges in the field and the need to mount and sustain a cohesive response across countries and partners, the WHO said.

Mpox is a viral infection that spreads through close contact, and typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild, but it can be lethal.

This year, there have been more than 46,000 suspected cases across Africa, mainly in Congo, and more than 1,000 suspected deaths.

The label of “public health emergency of international concern” is the WHO’s highest form of alert, and was also applied to a global outbreak of a different form of mpox in 2022-2023.

The alert issued this year followed the spread of a new variant of the virus, called clade Ib.

Cases of this variant have been confirmed in the UK, Germany, Sweden and India, among other countries.

In September, after facing criticism on moving too slowly on vaccines, the WHO cleared Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox and, earlier this month, listed Japan’s KM Biologics’ shot for emergency use.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London, Sriparna Roy and Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)