{"id":49898,"date":"2025-09-07T23:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T23:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49898\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T23:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T23:19:11","slug":"who-chief-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-says-mpox-is-no-longer-a-global-health-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49898\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says mpox is no longer a global health emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA (AP) \u2014 The World Health Organization no longer considers the mpox outbreak<\/a> in Africa to be an international health emergency, the U.N. agency\u2019s director said Friday. <\/p>\n

The new form of mpox emerged in early 2024<\/a> in Congo and neighboring African countries, spread through close contact including sex. WHO declared it a global health emergency<\/a> in August of last year. <\/p>\n

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Friday that an emergency panel created after the outbreak has advised that the situation is no longer an international emergency, and \u201cI have accepted that advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The international emergency declaration, the agency\u2019s highest level of warning about threatening health issues, triggers the release of resources and enhanced public awareness campaigns, among other measures. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, lifting the emergency declaration does not mean the threat is over, nor that our response will stop,\u201d the WHO chief said.<\/p>\n

Mpox<\/a> \u2014 formerly known as monkeypox \u2014 is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that\u2019s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. <\/p>\n

It is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. Milder symptoms can include fever, chills and body aches. In more serious cases, people can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.<\/p>\n

There are different versions of the virus. <\/p>\n

One version \u2014 called clade II \u2014 was the source of an international health crisis in 2022, when cases escalated rapidly in dozens of countries, spreading mostly among men who have sex with men. At one point in the U.S.<\/a>, an average of close to 500 cases were reported each day.<\/p>\n

The infections were rarely fatal, but many people suffered painful skin lesions for weeks. Those outbreaks waned later that year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The other version \u2014 known as clade I \u2014 is spread through close contact, including through sex, and is deadlier. A newer form of the clade 1 virus has been widely transmitted in eastern and central Africa, with the bulk of the cases in Burundi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leading to last year\u2019s WHO declaration.<\/p>\n

Cases were identified in travelers outside of the continent, but that spread has been more limited.<\/p>\n

The U.S., for example, has reported five cases of this version of mpox, in people who had recently traveled to affected areas in Africa. The cases were not linked, and no additional spread of mpox has been reported, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

Tedros said the decision to end the emergency followed improved public health measures and sustained declines in case counts. <\/p>\n

Increased testing was a big factor, said Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a Nigerian infectious diseases specialist who chairs the WHO emergency committee. \u201cMany countries have improved their ability to diagnose,\u201d allowing them to identify cases and reduce spread, he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Stobbe reported from New York.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA (AP) \u2014 The World Health Organization no longer considers the mpox outbreak in Africa to be an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[4204,36812,36813,26540,18,3334,135,475,474,19,17,20713,2101,36814,3497,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-49898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","10":"tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","11":"tag-disease-outbreaks","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-health-care","16":"tag-healthcare","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-mpox","20":"tag-public-health","21":"tag-sex-and-sexuality","22":"tag-world-health-organization","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}