WHO lifts Monkeypox health emergency

The outbreak of the monkeypox viral disease in more than 100 countries is no longer an international health emergency. Because the number of reported cases worldwide has fallen sharply, the World Health Organization (WHO) lifted the state of emergency imposed in July 2022 on Thursday.

The state of emergency is the highest level of alert the WHO can impose. It warns governments of threats. Governments themselves determine which protective measures they take, so the withdrawal has no direct consequences. Last Friday, the WHO lifted the health emergency due to the corona pandemic after more than three years.

Mpox – as the WHO has been calling the disease for several months – was practically only known from a few African countries until early 2022. In the spring, doctors suddenly discovered numerous cases in other countries. The spread of Mpox so soon after the Corona pandemic sparked great fears of a new global health threat. Since the summer, however, the numbers have fallen sharply.

In total, more than 87,000 cases of Mpox infections and 140 deaths from 111 countries have been reported to WHO since the beginning of 2022 and until 9 May 2023. With few testing opportunities in many places and not everyone reporting affected, experts believe the global spread should have started sooner. According to her, the actual number of infections is probably also higher.

The disease is caused by the monkeypox virus. The most noticeable symptom is blisters and pimples on the skin, including in the genital and anal regions. Mpox is transmitted through close physical contact. According to the WHO, men who have sex with men were particularly affected. There is a vaccine against the disease.

The WHO has declared a public health emergency seven times since 2005. It is rightly called “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC). The longest applies to polio (infantile paralysis) and has existed since 2014, the second longest was the Corona emergency. It was withdrawn on May 5, 2023. The WHO also raised the alarm about the influenza A virus H1N1 (2009-2010), Ebola in West Africa (2014-2016), Zika (2016) and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019 -2020).

(yam/sda/dpa)