WHO declares end to mpox public health emergency
- The move signals that the crisis caused by the virus, which caused confirmed cases in over a hundred countries, is now under control
- The disease, also known as mpox, spreads through direct contact with body fluids and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it was ending a 10-month-long global health emergency for mpox, a viral disease that led to confirmed cases in more than a hundred countries.
The organisation declared monkeypox – which it has renamed as mpox because of “racist and stigmatising” language surrounding the virus – a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022 and backed its stand in November and February.
The WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared the end of the emergency status for the disease based on the recommendation of the organisation’s emergency committee, which met on Wednesday.
The move signals that the crisis due to mpox, which spreads through direct contact with body fluids and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions, has come under control.
Nicola Low, vice-chair of WHO’s emergency committee on mpox, said there was a need to move to a strategy for managing the long-term public health risks of mpox than to rely on emergency measures.
