"WHO lifts maximum alert level for monkeypox epidemic after almost a year: Latest updates"

2023-05-11 16:03:40

This announcement comes a week after the lifting of the WHO’s highest level of alert for Covid.

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Posted on 11/05/2023 18:03

Update on 11/05/2023 19:01

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Vials of monkeypox tests in Paris, July 22, 2022. (JOAO LUIZ BULCAO / HANS LUCAS / AFP)

The WHO lifted its maximum alert level for the mpox epidemic, formerly called monkey pox, on Thursday May 11, deeming it sufficiently under control almost a year after the start of its unprecedented outbreak outside endemic areas. This epidemic “no longer represents a public health emergency of international concern”said at a press conference the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

This announcement comes exactly one week after the lifting of the WHO’s highest level of alert for Covid. “While the mpox and Covid-19 emergencies are over, the threat of further waves remains for both. Both viruses continue to circulate and both continue to kill”however warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Outbreaks of mpox had been observed, from May 2022, in Europe and the United States, apart from the ten countries in Central and West Africa where the disease has long been endemic. The Public Health Emergency of International Concern was declared on July 23, 2022 by the Director General of the WHO. The disease claimed 140 lives, according to the latest count cited by the director general.