THE World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting of its committee on responding to public health crises, dedicated to mpoxon Wednesday August 14, to assess whether or not to declare the highest level of alert, as the disease continues to spread in African countries, it was announced yesterday Saturday.

“The first meeting in 2024 of the emergency response committee was convened by the Director-General of WHO (…) regarding the resurgence of mpox”, and was set to take place “on 14 August (…) from 12:00” (Geneva time; 13:00 Greece time), the organization said in a briefing note distributed to journalists.

The meetings of this committee are generally held behind closed doors.

“The committee will present to me its views on whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern and, if so, will advise me on the provisional recommendations to be made,” summarized WHO chief Dr. Tedros Andanom Ghebresusthrough X.

He had announced on Wednesday August 7 that he would convene the committee “as soon as possible”.

A health emergency of international concern is the highest level of alert the WHO can declare. It is done by its general director, following the recommendation of the competent committee.

The disease, formerly known as monkey pox, is viral, transmitted from animals to humans and can also be transmitted from human to human, in case of close physical contact with a person who is a carrier.

New strain of the virus that causes mpox, christened “clade 1b” (“variant 1b”) was identified in September 2023 at DR Congo, then to neighboring countries, raising concerns about its spread. According to the head of the WHO, variant 1b “causes more severe disease than variant 2”.

DR Congo is the hardest-hit country: As of August 3, there were 14,479 confirmed or suspected cases and 455 deaths — based on those numbers, the disease has a fatality rate of about 3 percent — according to the African public health agency. Union.

mpox — which was first detected in humans in 1970 in then Zaire, now DR Congo — has as its main symptom the appearance of rashes on the genitals or in the mouth, while it can also be accompanied by high fever, headache, myalgia, lymphadenopathy, etc. etc.. The variant of the virus currently causing the disease is a mutation. To date, its spread is limited to countries in west and central Africa, with patients generally infected by animals that carry the virus.

In 2022 a global epidemic of variant 2 spread to about a hundred countries where the disease is not endemic, mainly among gay and bisexual men.

The WHO had declared the highest level of alert in July 2022 due to the increase in cases at the international level; it proceeded to lift it a year later, in May 2023.

The epidemic accounted for approximately 140 deaths out of a total of 90,000 cases.