A word of warning: The World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing international “guidelines” on how to best respond to a global MPOX outbreak, the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Thursday from the organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
WHO warning: China Announced The country will monitor incoming people and goods for MPOX for the next six months, and Pakistan confirmed its first case of the MPOX variant in Asia, a day after Sweden reported its first case outside Africa.
Tedros spoke The United Nations has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern over the rapid spread of MPOX in Africa, Breitbart News reported.
He said the WHO was ready to respond and had orders ready to be issued.
The Emergency Committee is currently working on interim recommendations to be issued in the coming days to provide guidance on addressing the acute risks of MPOX in countries affected by or at risk of MPOX.
In addition, we have extended for one year the continuing recommendations we issued last year when we declared the previous mpox PHEIC closed. These recommendations provide more general guidelines for addressing chronic risk of mpox globally.
Tedros further explained that 15,664 MPOX cases and 537 deaths have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone so far this year, already surpassing last year’s totals, which was the highest ever recorded.
Formerly called monkeypox, the virus was first discovered infecting humans in 1970 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (right) and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (left) meet during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, on July 26, 2024. (Mustafa Cifci/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans from infected animals, but can also be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact.
The disease causes fever, muscle pain and large, boil-like skin lesions and has been seen in Africa as well as other parts of the world.
UK medical experts warn of ‘very significant’ increase in monkeypox cases https://t.co/j99ztAx0SS
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 21, 2022
Tedros’ global warning came shortly after the Swedish government announced the first confirmed cases of the more severe MPOX strain diagnosed outside Africa.
“This afternoon a case of a more severe variant of the virus was confirmed,” Sweden’s Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forsmed said in Stockholm. Reports Daily News.
Director of Public Health Olivia Wigzell was also present and confirmed that “this case is the first case of a virus variant diagnosed outside the African continent.”
