HIGH DEATH RATE

World Heath Organization Declares Mpox Outbreak a Global Health Emergency

The World Health Organization issued a statement on Wednesday, upgrading the mpox outbreak in Central Africa to a “public health emergency of international concern.”

The World Health Organization declared mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, a public health emergency of international concern, the most severe declaration the organization can issue, according to CNN. “In addition to other outbreaks of other clades of mpox in other parts of Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on his decision to invoke the declaration, according to the Washington Post. Mpox has a staggeringly high death rate, with 450 of the 13,791 cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in death, according to the WHO. The virus has spread to Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. The newest strain of mpox, wreaking havoc in the D.R.C., is more virulent and deadly than the 2022 strain which infected 100,000 people, killing 1,700 of them, according to the The New York Times. Researchers have found this strain to be sexually transmitted and most harmful to children under 15 and women.