Mpox no longer a global emergency, WHO says

The World Health Organization said Thursday that the global outbreak of mpox, which initially baffled experts when the smallpox-related disease spread to more than 100 countries last year, is no longer an international emergency, after a dramatic drop in cases in recent months.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that the global outbreak of mpox, which initially baffled experts when the smallpox-related disease spread to more than 100 countries last year, is no longer an international emergency, after a dramatic drop in cases in recent months.

Last July, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared mpox, also known as monkeypox, to be an "extraordinary" situation that qualified as a global crisis. In doing so, he overruled WHO's expert committee, which didn't recommend the emergency designation.

Tedros said the novel way mpox was infecting people, via sexual contact in many countries that had never before identified cases, raised numerous concerns that warranted more attention. It was the biggest-ever outbreak of mpox.

He said at a media briefing on Thursday that his expert committee had concluded that the dramatic decline in cases in recent months, with about 90% fewer cases in the last three months, was no longer an acute concern.

"We now see steady progress in controlling the outbreak based on the lessons of HIV and working closely with the most affected communities," Tedros said. "I'm pleased to declare that the mpox is no longer a global health emergency."

The announcement Thursday comes after WHO downgraded COVID-19 last week, when it said the worst part of the pandemic was over and that the coronavirus should be managed like other respiratory diseases.

Mpox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents. But the disease wasn't known to spark big outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread easily among people until last May, when dozens of epidemics emerged in Europe, North America and elsewhere.