(TheRedAlertNews.com) – With the world still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued its most urgent warning, classifying the recent mpox outbreak in Africa as a global public health emergency.
See the video of the WHO declaration in the tweet below!
Reacting to a significant uptick in cases within the Democratic Republic of Congo and the virus’s proliferation to adjacent nations, the WHO quickly organized a summit of specialists to analyze the epidemic, Breitbart News reports.
“Today, the emergency committee met and advised me that, in its view, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice,” stated WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press briefing.
A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) represents the most severe alert level under the International Health Regulations, which are mandatory for 196 countries.
“The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” Tedros remarked.
The decision by the UN health agency to declare a PHEIC came one day following a similar declaration by the African Union’s health watchdog due to the escalating outbreak.
Tedros noted that the current year’s tally of over 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in the DR Congo has surpassed the totals from the previous year.
“The emergence last year and rapid spread of clade 1b in DRC, which appears to be spreading mainly through sexual networks, and its detection in countries neighbouring DRC is especially concerning,” he added, citing Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda as examples.
Dimie Ogoina, who led the emergency committee, indicated that the 15 members unanimously agreed that the escalation in mpox cases constituted an extraordinary event.
He expressed concerns that the currently known facts might only represent “the tip of the iceberg,” due to insufficient surveillance systems that fail to capture the full extent of the outbreak.
The virus, initially identified in humans in 1970 in what is now the DRC and previously known as monkeypox, is transmitted to humans from infected animals but can also spread through close human-to-human contact.
It results in symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, and large, boil-like skin lesions. This is the second consecutive PHEIC concerning mpox, focusing on a different and more lethal strain of the virus than the previous one.
In May 2022, a global surge in mpox cases, predominantly among gay and bisexual men, was linked to the clade 2b subclade.
This led to a public health emergency declaration that lasted from July 2022 until May 2023.
The outbreak, which has largely abated, resulted in approximately 140 fatalities from around 90,000 cases.
BREAKING: The World Health Organization declares Mpox (monkeypox) outbreak a global health emergency.
The announcement came after experts met virtually to advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the outbreak.
"Today the emergency committee met and advised me… pic.twitter.com/N2oE3CzNr2
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 14, 2024
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