Mpox no longer a global emergency, WHO says

LONDON (AP):

The World Health Organization said Thursday that the global outbreak of mpox, which initially baffled experts when the smallpox-related disease spread to more than 100 countries last year, is no longer an international emergency, after a dramatic drop in cases in recent months.

Last July, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared mpox, also known as monkeypox, to be an “extraordinary” situation that qualified as a global crisis. In doing so, he overruled WHO’s expert committee, which didn’t recommend the emergency designation.

Tedros said the novel way mpox was infecting people, via sexual contact in many countries that had never before identified cases, raised numerous concerns that warranted more attention; nearly all cases were in men who were gay, bisexual or had sex with other men. It was the biggest ever outbreak of mpox.

He said at a media briefing on Thursday that his expert committee had concluded that the recent dramatic decline in cases, with about 90 per cent fewer cases in the last three months, was no longer an acute concern.

“We now see steady progress in controlling the outbreak based on the lessons of HIV and working closely with the most affected communities,” Tedros said, “I’m pleased to declare that the mpox is no longer a global health emergency.” He added that the feared backlash against the communities most affected by the outbreak “has largely not materialised”.

WORST PART OVER

The announcement Thursday comes after WHO downgraded COVID-19 last week, when it said the worst part of the pandemic was over and that the coronavirus should be managed like other respiratory diseases.

Mpox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents. But the disease wasn’t known to spark big outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread easily among people until last May, when dozens of epidemics emerged in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

Mpox most often causes symptoms including a rash, fever, headache, muscle pain and swollen lymph nodes. The skin lesions can last up to a month and the disease is spread via close physical contact with an infected patient or their clothing or bedsheets. Most people don’t need medical treatment to recover.

Scientists ultimately concluded that the unprecedented outbreak was tied to sex among gay and bisexual men at raves in Spain and Belgium, marking a significant departure from the mpox’s typical pattern of spread in Africa, where outbreaks haven’t spilled across borders.