WHO declares Monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency 2024
The World Health Organization on August 14, 2024 declared the ongoing mpox* outbreak in Africa a global health emergency . *Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can spread easily between people and from infected animals. WHO convened its emergency committee amid concerns that a deadlier strain of the virus , clade Ib, had reached four previously unaffected countries in Africa. This strain had previously been contained to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The independent experts met virtually Wednesday to advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the severity of the outbreak. After that consultation, he announced that he had declared a public health emergency of international concern — the highest level of alarm under international health law. “The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox and the potential for further spread within Africa and