Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday that the U.N. agency and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are stepping up efforts to interrupt transmission of the virus.
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The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Sunday, August 4, that he was considering convening a committee of experts to determine whether to declare the outbreak of mpox, also known as “monkey pox”underway in several African countries. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, among others, were increasing their efforts to interrupt transmission of the virus.
“But more funding and support is needed for a comprehensive response.”he said on the social network X. “I am considering convening an emergency committee on international health regulations to advise me on whether the mpox outbreak should be declared a public health emergency of international concern.”he continued. This qualification is the highest alert that the WHO can trigger, and it is the head of the WHO who can launch it on the advice of the committee.
On 11 July, WHO warned of the global health threat posed by MPOX, expressing concern over an outbreak of a new, more deadly strain of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since then, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have announced multiple cases of MPOX. The DRC has reported more than 11,000 cases, including 450 deaths.
This virus was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. But by May 2022, infections with the virus had spread worldwide, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men. This global outbreak of “monkey pox” had then led the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022, then lifted in May 2023.
