MPOX is no longer an international health emergency, announces WHO

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this Friday (5) that mpox, which mainly affects Africa, is no longer an international public health emergency due to the drop in the number of cases and deaths.

Pox is a disease caused by a virus in the same family as smallpox. It is characterized by skin lesions such as pustules, fever, and muscle pain.

"Over a year ago, I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the spread of mpox in Africa, following the advice of an emergency committee," but on Thursday, that committee deemed it no longer necessary and I accepted their advice, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

"This decision is based on the sustained decrease in the number of cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other affected countries, in particular Burundi, Sierra Leone and Uganda," he said.

However, the WHO chief warned that this “does not mean the threat is over, nor that our response will stop.”

First identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970, mpox remained confined for a long time to about ten African countries.

But in 2022 it began to spread to the rest of the world, especially to developed countries where the virus had never circulated.