EBN- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the monkeypox outbreak remains a public health emergency.
The organization first declared a state of emergency in August when a new sub-strain of the virus spread from the heavily affected Democratic Republic of Congo to neighboring countries.
The organization convened an Emergency Committee meeting, and the Director-General of the organization, in line with the advice of the Committee, decided that the significant increase in monkeypox cases constituted a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO stated that the decision is based on the increasing number of infections and the continued spread of cases in a geographical area, in addition to the operational challenges in the field and the need for a coordinated and sustainable response at the level of countries and partners.
Monkeypox can be transmitted through contact, and the disease can be fatal, but its symptoms are usually mild.
The disease causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled blisters on the body.
More than 46,000 people are suspected to have been infected across Africa this year, mainly in Congo, and more than 1,000 are suspected to have died.
Classifying a disease outbreak as a “public health emergency of international concern” is the WHO’s highest level of alert, and was also applied to a global outbreak of a different subspecies of monkeypox in 2022-2023.
The organization issued the warning this year following the outbreak of a new sub-strain of the virus, sub-strain (Clade 1b).
Cases of this subspecies have been confirmed in Britain, Germany, Sweden, India and elsewhere.
The World Health Organization approved Bavarian Nordic’s monkeypox vaccine in September after facing criticism for its slow approval of vaccines.
