Mpox is no longer a global health emergency, but more needs to be done to eradicate the sometimes deadly virus that causes unsightly, painful rashes, the World Health Organization said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lowered the global alert level on mpox, previously known as monkeypox, almost a year after declaring the spread of the virus an extraordinary event.
A PHEIC — pronounced “fake” — applies to an extraordinary event that carries a public-health risk via the international spread of a disease, and one that potentially requires a coordinated response. It can be used to encourage nations to cooperate on countermeasures.
Tedros declared mpox a PHEIC in July even though an expert panel had been divided on the matter. The leader of the WHO has been criticized for previously raising the alarm on Covid too slowly. He declared the end of the PHEIC on Covid last week.
A cousin of the smallpox virus, mpox has mostly been confined to developing countries for years, but spread across Europe and the US last year. There have been more than 87,000 cases and 140 deaths from 111 countries reported to the WHO. The smallpox vaccine Imvanex has shown effectiveness against monkeypox.
In the US, health officials are currently investigating a cluster of new cases in Chicago, more than half of which are in people who were previously vaccinated against the virus. Still, there were almost 90% fewer cases reported globally in the last three months, compared with the previous three months, Tedros said Thursday.
Neglected Disease
The pathogen typically causes flu-like symptoms, followed by a rash that often starts on the face and spreads down the belly. The illness often lasts for two weeks to a month, and can be deadly.
A large proportion of cases have been among men who’ve had sex with men, and many have occurred within sexual networks, though anyone can contract the disease. For those who also have untreated HIV infection, there is particular risk.
Understanding Monkeypox and How Outbreaks Spread: QuickTake
Mpox is still a major concern, particularly for countries in Africa, said Rosamund Lewis, the technical lead for the WHO’s mpox health emergency program. “There are countries in Africa which were dealing with mpox long before this outbreak began and will continue to deal with it for some time to come,” she said.
Virus transmission is also continuing in Latin America, a few countries in Europe, with an upsurge in cases occurring in some countries of the Western Pacific region and in the US, she said.
Without deliberate investment in monitoring and better understanding the disease these risks will remain, said Michael Ryan, the WHO’s executive director for Health Emergencies.
“It’s been totally neglected during this outbreak. In fact, WHO had to fund all of this international response purely on the basis of a contingency for emergencies,” he said. “Maybe it’s an issue of the continued prejudices that exist in this world and it’s who is infected and not the what is infecting them that has this impact.”
--With assistance from Madison Muller.
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