The number of cases of Mpox infection has decreased by almost 90% in the last three months globally, but the virus continues to circulate in various communities and countries, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. .
The data was advanced by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a video message sent to the experts of the organization’s Emergency Committee, who meet to analyze whether the mpoxide, formerly known as Monkeypox, should continue to be considered an international public health emergency, the maximum alert decreed. by the WHO.
The WHO began receiving the first reports of infection cases in countries on the European and American continents at least a year ago, and in July 2022, the director general declared the outbreak an international public health emergency.
According to the latest data from the General Directorate of Health, from May 3, 2022 to April 28, 2023, 953 cases of Mpox virus infection were confirmed in Portugal, with no new cases reported since the previous monthly data. .
“In total, more than 87,000 cases and 140 deaths from 111 countries have been reported to WHO. Due to global mobilization and rapid response from most countries, we are now seeing steady progress in controlling this outbreak. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added.
According to him, almost 90% fewer cases were reported in the last three months, compared to the previous quarter, but despite this global downward trend, the “virus continues to be transmitted in certain communities and countries,” such as in the West. Pacific region.
In addition, there is no clear trend for the cases registered in Africa, where infections continue to be reported in several countries, said the WHO official, while also regretting that many countries are now slowing down surveillance and reducing access to tests for screening and vaccinations.
According to the DGS, the most common symptoms of the disease are fever, severe headache, muscle aches, back pain, fatigue, enlarged lymph nodes with the progressive appearance of rashes that affect the skin and mucous membranes.
A sick person ceases to be infectious only after complete healing and the fall of the scabs from the skin lesions, a period that can exceed four weeks.
An international public health emergency is defined as “an extraordinary, serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected event” with public health implications beyond the national borders of an affected State and which may require immediate international action.
This was the seventh time that the WHO declared an international emergency (a mechanism started in 2005), after having done so for Influenza A in 2009, for Ebola in 2014 and 2018, for Polio in 2014, for Zika virus in 2017 and for coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 in 2020, the latter raised last week.
Source: TSF
