WHO Emergency Committee to convene for reassessment of Mpox’s classification as a global health emergency

The WHO’s Emergency Committee will meet next week to talk about mpox again and decide if it is still a world health emergency.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that its Emergency Committee will meet next week to decide if mpox, which was already a global health emergency, is still a crisis. Before this meeting, there were worries about how the disease was spreading, especially in Africa, where a new type, called clade Ib, has caused a lot of new cases.

The WHO declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in August, which is the highest level of alert. This was done because the virus was spreading more in some parts of Africa. As of November 3, 2023, the most recent report from the WHO says that there have been 46,794 proven and suspected cases of mpox across Africa, with 1,081 deaths. The worst hit countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Uganda. The DRC is where most of the cases are happening.

People who are close to someone who has mumps usually get it. People who have mpp get flu-like symptoms and develop pus-filled sores on their bodies. The illness is generally not too bad, but sometimes it can be fatal.

The WHO’s news comes soon after the group started sending the first doses of the mpox vaccine to the nine African countries that have been hit the hardest by the outbreak. This vaccine distribution is meant to stop the disease from spreading even more and protect people who are already at risk.

When the Emergency Committee meets next week, everyone will be paying close attention to what they decide because it could change how the whole world deals with the disease. The outcome will depend on how well containment methods work in the affected areas and how often the mpox virus is detected.