The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to convene the emergency committee “as soon as possible” to assess the international spread of the smallpox virus (MPOX). The expert committee must determine whether the highest level of alert (the health emergency) should be declared for the epidemic in several African countries. The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, announced this at a press conference on Wednesday.
The mottled virus has been ravaging the Congo since the beginning of this year. More than 14,000 suspected cases and at least 511 deaths have been reported in the African country. The World Health Organization has a regional response plan, but is not ruling out another international spread in the region. Cases have also been recorded in several neighboring countries of the Congo.
Ghebreyesus announced that there are two vaccines against monkeypox. He called for international cooperation to accelerate the production and distribution of these vaccines to the most affected countries.
The virus was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In May 2022, the number of people with MPOX increased dramatically worldwide. A variant of the virus, ‘clade II’, affected gay and bisexual men in particular. As a result of that global disease the WHO declared a state of emergency from July 2022 to May 2023. The most commonly found variant of the virus is clade Ib. It would be more deadly than the previous virus variant.
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2024-08-07 18:56:55
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