Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
24-11-2024
GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) says it will keep its alert for mpox at the highest level amid a surge in cases.
A WHO committee made up of about a dozen independent experts made the decision at a meeting in Geneva on Friday, three months after the WHO first declared a public health emergency of global concern in August.
The WHO said its decision was “based on the rising number and continuing geographic spread of cases, operational challenges in the field, and the need to mount and sustain a cohesive response across countries and partners”.
There has been a surge in mpox cases this year, predominantly focused in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries.
A first batch of vaccines was rolled out last month and appears to have had an impact on containing cases of the highly contagious disease, but the United Nations agency has been waiting for substantial proof to discuss the impact of vaccinations.
The African Union’s health watchdog warned at the end of October that the mpox outbreak was still not under control and called for more resources to avoid a pandemic that it said could potentially be worse than COVID-19.
The virus is usually mild, but it can be fatal in rare cases.
Mpox is believed to have killed hundreds of people in the DRC and elsewhere last year as it also spread to Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria and Uganda, causing a continent-wide emergency.
The disease can be spread through close contact with an infected person, sexual activity or breathing in infectious particles. The virus then replicates and spreads to the lymph nodes, leading them to swell before further spreading and causing rashes or lesions.
The African Union’s health watchdog has declared a public health emergency over the growing mpox outbreak on the continent, saying the move is a “clarion call for action”. “I declare with a heavy heart but with an unyielding commitment to our people, to our African citizens, we declare mpox as public health emergency of continental security,” Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said during an online media briefing on Tuesday.
“Mpox has now crossed borders, affecting thousands across our continent, families have been torn apart and the pain and suffering have touched every corner of our continent,” he said. According to CDC data as of August 4, there had been 38,465 cases of mpox and 1,456 deaths in Africa since January 2022.
“This declaration is not merely a formality, it is a clarion call to action. It is a recognition that we can no longer afford to be reactive. We must be proactive and aggressive in our efforts to contain and eliminate this threat,” said Kaseya.
Mpox is transmitted through close contact and causes rashes, flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Most cases are mild but it can kill. The disease can be dangerous for children, pregnant women and those with suppressed immune systems.
The outbreak has swept through several African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the virus was first discovered in humans in 1970.
The outbreak, which has since spread to neighboring countries, began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade 1 but the new variant, known as clade 1b, appears to spread more easily through routine close contact.
The Africa CDC warned last week that the viral infection’s rate of spread was alarming. It said that more than 15,000 mpox cases and 461 deaths were reported on the continent this year so far, representing a 160 percent increase from the same period last year. (Int’l News Desk)
