The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that Mpox (a viral disease formerly known as “monkey pox”) is no longer a global health emergency, ending nearly a year of warning about the viral disease, which caused hundreds of cases of the disease. confirmed in more than 100 countries.

This epidemic “is no longer a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference, following the recommendations formulated by the organization’s emergency committee, reports Agerpres.

The announcement was made exactly one week after WHO also lifted the highest level of epidemiological warning for the disease Covid-19.

“Although the Mpox and Covid-19 emergencies have ended, the threat of new waves of both diseases remains. Two viruses continue to circulate and two diseases continue to kill,” warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Since May 2022, a sudden increase in Mpox cases has been detected in Europe and the United States, in regions far removed from ten countries in Central and West Africa where the disease has long been endemic.

In July 2022, WHO declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern and confirmed this epidemiological status in November 2022 and in February 2023.

Since then, the incidence curve has fallen sharply. Thus, over the past three months there have been “almost 90% fewer cases compared to the previous three months,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added.

The status, which WHO adopted for the disease, aims to launch a coordinated international response and unlock funds so that countries around the world can cooperate in the distribution of vaccines and medical treatments.

According to the latest WHO report, between the beginning of 2022 and May 8, 2023, more than 87,000 cases of mipox were confirmed worldwide. Cases of infection have been confirmed in 111 countries, this disease has caused 140 deaths.

Although the WHO announced in the first half of this year that it has seen a steady decline in the number of registered cases, its representatives still express concern about the possible resurgence of the disease in some regions and the continued transmission of the virus in some regions. countries.

Mpox – an endemic disease in some countries of West and Central Africa – is characterized by skin rashes that can appear on the genitals or in the oral cavity. The disease can be accompanied by attacks of fever, sore throat and pain in the lymph nodes.