Mpox Still a Health Emergency, Says WHO

LONDON (Reuters) – The mpox outbreak is still a public health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The WHO, which first declared the emergency in August last year, said its decision was based on the continuing rise in the number of mpox cases and the geographic spread of the outbreak.

The agency added that violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has hampered its response plan, was also a factor.

A public health emergency of international concern is the WHO’s highest form of alert, and is declared by the agency’s Director-General after advice from a group of external experts. A different form of mpox was also labelled as an emergency in 2022-2023.

The new form of mpox, clade Ib, continues to predominantly affect the Democratic Republic of Congo, but Uganda and Burundi are also significantly affected, according to a recent report from the WHO. There have also been travel-related cases in countries including Thailand and Britain.

Globally, there have been more than 21,000 cases confirmed by laboratory testing since the beginning of 2024, including 70 deaths, mainly in Congo, according to the WHO. Last year, there were also more than 50,000 suspected cases, and more than 1,000 deaths. Confirming cases has been challenging in areas with less capacity.

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 can be lethal.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby and Harshita Meenaktshi; Editing by Alex Richardson)