The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the end of the global public health emergency for mpox, a viral disease that spread rapidly in 2022, including in countries where it does not usually occur.
“We now see steady progress in controlling the outbreak based on the lessons of HIV and working closely with the most affected communities,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday. However, he said that the work to tackle mpox was not over and that the disease “continues to pose significant public health challenges.”
The decision comes just days after Tedros declared the end of the COVID-19 global health emergency.
Mpox, formerly monkeypox, was declared a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022, when more than 16,000 cases had been reported to the WHO. Now, more than 87,000 cases have been confirmed in 11 countries, with 140 people dying from the infection, which causes a painful rash as well as other symptoms such as fever and muscle aches.
Mpox is transmitted through close physical contact and is endemic to several African countries. In the outbreak in non-endemic countries, the illness has overwhelmingly affected men who have sex with men and its spread caused alarm within the LGBTQ+ community when it first began taking a hold last summer.
The outbreak hit just as countries were recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic — although crucially there was a smallpox vaccine ready and waiting from Danish manufacturer Bavarian Nordic. In July, the European Medicines Agency recommended the indication for the vaccine be extended to cover monkeypox. But as with COVID-19 jabs, access was not always easy and countries looked at dose-sparing strategies to stretch limited supplies.
The decision on Thursday follows a recommendation from a committee of experts that the outbreak no longer represents a public health emergency of international concern.
Cases of mpox in the WHO’s European region have declined dramatically since the 2022 peak, with just eight cases in the three weeks before May 9. In total, six people have died in the region from mpox.
