Mpox no longer an emergency but concerns remain, health body says

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -Mpox is no longer an international health emergency, the World Health Organization chief said on Friday, after experts reported falls in infections from the dangerous disease in hot spots across Africa.

The UN health agency declared the emergency - its highest level of alert - in August last year, when an outbreak of a new form of mpox started spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.

There had since been "sustained declines in cases" in Congo and other affected countries including Burundi, Sierra Leone and Uganda, WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.

Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, are all at higher risk of complications. 

The WHO said Mpox was still a public health concern across the world, but it had decided to downgrade it based on advice from its Emergency Committee, which meets every three months to evaluate the outbreak.

"While we are removing the emergency, we need to keep the urgency," Professor Dimie Ogoina from the Emergency Committee said.

"This is not a time for us to reduce the investments in terms of financial investment, partnership, solidarity, especially for most affected countries in the African continent," he added.

Out of the recorded cases, there had been worrying levels of deaths among people living with HIV AIDS, particularly in Uganda and Sierra Leone, and signs of vulnerability among infants and children in Congo, Ogoina said.

The new form of Mpox, clade Ib, continues to predominantly impact sub-Saharan Africa. There have also been travel-related cases in Thailand, Britain and other countries.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Ludwig Burger and Andrew Heavens)