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WHO declares end to mpox public health emergency
The organization declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022 and backed its stand in November and February.
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World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (second right) and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (second left) in a press briefing on Feb. 23, 2022. The WHO has announced that Indonesia, along with four other countries, will receive supports to facilitate the local manufacturing of mRNA vaccine. (Courtesy of Foreign Ministry/-)
T
he 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 organization declared mpox 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 organization'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.
The transition would mean including mpox response and preparedness under national disease surveillance programs such as those for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, Low said.
Almost 90 percent fewer mpox cases were reported in the past three months, compared with cases in the same duration before that, the WHO chief said.
