Mpox is no longer a global health emergency, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), ending a near year-long alert for the viral disease that led to confirmed cases in more than one hundred countries.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared mpox, also known as monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022 and backed its stand in November and February.

Tedros said the novel way mpox was infecting people, via sexual contact in many countries that had never before identified cases, raised numerous concerns that warranted more attention. It was the biggest-ever outbreak of mpox.

Dr Tedros declared the end of the emergency status for the disease based on the recommendation of the organization’s emergency committee, which met on Wednesday.

“We now see steady progress in controlling the outbreak based on the lessons of HIV and working closely with the most affected communities,” Tedros said.

“I’m pleased to declare that the mpox is no longer a global health emergency.”

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.

Almost 90 per cent fewer mpox cases were reported in the past three months, compared with cases in the same duration before that, the WHO chief said.

Mpox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents. But the disease wasn’t known to spark big outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread easily among people until last May, when dozens of epidemics emerged in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

Mpox most often causes symptoms including a rash, fever, headache, muscle pain and swollen lymph nodes. The skin lesions can last up to a month and the disease is spread via close physical contact with an infected patient or their clothing or bedsheets. Most people don’t need medical treatment to recover.

More than 87,000 mpox cases have been confirmed globally from the beginning of 2022 through May 8 this year, according to the WHO’s latest report.

The WHO recently also declared an end of public health emergency status for COVID-19.

“While the emergencies of mpox and COVID-19 are both over, the threat of resurgent waves remains for both. Both viruses continue to circulate and both continue to kill,” Tedros said.

The WHO tag is meant to trigger a coordinated international response and unlock funding for collaboration on sharing of vaccines and treatments.

Reuters