WHO calls emergency meeting to discuss jump in mpox cases from DRC

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called an emergency meeting to discuss a jump in mpox cases spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement on Wednesday, amid an outbreak that has seen nearly 27,000 cases in the DRC and claimed about 1,100 lives, many of them children.

In light of the spread of mpox outside DRC, and the potential for further international spread within and outside Africa, I have decided to convene an Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations to advise me on whether the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern, the WHO chief said in a social media post.

Ghebreyesus said he convened the meeting after cases of mpox appeared to spread to countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, where they had not been previously reported. The committee will advise the WHO on the question of whether the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) the highest level of alarm that the WHO can sound.

Read at www.aljazeera.com