Ten months after, WHO says Mpox no longer health emergency

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared an end to the outbreak of the Mpox virus as a public health emergency.

WHO Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, made the announcement Thursday at a press briefing in Geneva following an emergency committee meeting.

In July 2022, the global body declared Mpox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), which is the highest level of alert WHO can issue, as cases rapidly increased.

As of 8 May, WHO said over 87,000 Mpox cases and 140 deaths have been reported from 111 countries.

Decline in cases

In a video posted on the official Facebook page of the organisation, the WHO DG explained that the decision to end the PHEIC status was prompted by the decline in infections worldwide but emphasised that the disease remained contagious.

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Mr Ghebreyesus noted that almost 90 per cent fewer Mpox cases were reported in the past three months compared with cases in the same duration.

“However, as with COVID-19, that does not mean that the work is over. Mpox continues to pose significant public health challenges that need a robust, proactive and sustainable response,” he said.

He added that the global body is particularly concerned about African countries dealing with Mpox long before the worldwide outbreak began and could continue to deal with it for some time.

“While the emergencies of Mpox and COVID-19 are over, the threat of resurgent waves remains for both. Both viruses continue to circulate, and both continue to kill,” Mr Ghebreyesus said.

More cases in non-endemic countries

The current outbreak of Mpox started in the United Kingdom, linking confirmed infections and different strains to West Africa.

Before the outbreak, most cases occurred in countries where the virus was endemic. However, WHO has reported that most recent cases have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men, particularly in non-endemic countries.

WHO reiterated that the “sudden and unexpected” appearance of Monkeypox in these countries suggests that it may have gone undetected for some time.

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Data from CDC shows that the current outbreak affected 104 countries that have not historically reported Mpox, while only seven are endemic.

The endemic countries are the Central African Republic, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Republic of Congo.

The breakdown of cases shows that the ten non-endemic countries with the highest cumulative number of cases globally continue to be the United States of America, Brazil, Spain, France, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada.

About Mpox

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Mpox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research.

The first human case of Mpox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox.

Since then, Mpox has been reported in people in several other central and western African countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone.

There are two types of Mpox virus: Clade I and Clade II. Infections in the current outbreak are from Clade II, or more specifically, Clade IIb.