Immune Systems Advisor

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...

The Biden administration is preparing to sign up the United States to a “legally binding” accord with the World Health Organization (WHO) that experts say would give the Geneva-based United Nations health agency the authority to dictate America’s policies during a pandemic. Despite widespread criticism of the WHO’s response to the COVID pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra joined with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in September 2022 to  announce  “the U.S.-WHO Strategic Dialogue.” Together, they developed a “platform to maximize the longstanding U.S.–WHO partnership, and to protect and promote the health of all people around the globe, including the American people.” These discussions and others spawned the “zero draft” ( pdf ) of a pandemic treaty, published on Feb. 1, which now seeks ratification by all 194 WHO member states. A meeting of the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body is scheduled for Feb. 27 to work out the final ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) on May 5 declared an end to the COVID-19 global health emergency. The public health emergency of international concern has been in place  since Jan. 30, 2020 . WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus made the decision based on recommendations from WHO’s emergency committee. The decision means “that it is time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing COVID-19 alongside other infectious diseases,” Tedros said at a press conference from Geneva. Among the WHO’s recommendations is integrating COVID-19 vaccination into routine vaccinations, as the United States  has done . Officials cited how COVID-19 cases have been dropping for months and the continued uptick in the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 and/or been vaccinated. “This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19,” Ghebreyesus said. According to WHO, about 17,000 people died across the world from COVI...