The WHO declares a global health emergency due to an outbreak of monkey pox in Africa [VIDEOS]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made it official declared mpox a global health emergency.

The statement comes as the virus, known to cause lesions throughout the body, continues to spread across several African nations, including Burundi, Kenya and Rwanda.

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Since the beginning of the year, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reported more than 13,700 cases and 450 deaths from the virus.

The rise in numbers has prompted the WHO to classify the situation as a “public health emergency of international concern”. This category has previously been used for major outbreaks such as Ebola and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He also stressed that “stopping these outbreaks will require a personalized and comprehensive response” from communities.

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The statement follows a recent WHO expert assembly that met to assess the growing threat of the smallpox virus in Africa. Reports from the Manchester Evening News indicate that the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has expressed concern about the spread of a new strain of mpox across the continent.

Addressing the Emergency Committee, the WHO noted that mpox has been present in the DRC for more than a decade, and cases are steadily increasing every year. The situation increased significantly last year, and this year has already surpassed last year's totals, with more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths.

Of particular concern is the emergence and rapid spread of the clade 1b strain in the DRC, which appears to be transmitted primarily through sexual networks. This strain has also been detected in neighboring countries, which had not previously reported cases of mpox, such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The WHO stated: “We are not dealing with an outbreak of one clade, we are dealing with multiple outbreaks of different clades in different countries with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk.”