WHO on Wednesday declared the mpox surge in Africa a global public health emergency, sounding its highest possible alarm over the worsening situation.
Worried by the rise in cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the spread to nearby countries, the WHO hastily convened a meeting of experts to study the outbreak.
“Today, the emergency committee met and advised me that in its view, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern [PHEIC]. I have accepted that advice,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
Photo: Reuters
A PHEIC is the highest level of alarm under the International Health Regulations.
“The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” Tedros said.
Tedros said many members feared the known situation in Africa was “actually the tip of the iceberg,” because without more robust surveillance, “we don’t have the full picture.”
Formerly called monkeypox, the mpox virus was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the DRC.
Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals, but can also be passed from human to human through close contact.
It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
It is the second PHEIC in succession on mpox.
In May 2022, mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men, due to the clade 2b subclade.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday raised its travel warning for seven countries.
The DRC travel warning has been raised to “Level 2: Alert,” while the travel warning for six other African countries with an occurrence of mpox outbreak or clade 1b mpox virus, including Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, have been raised to “Level 1: Watch,” the CDC said in a news release.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said that the upsurge of mpox in Africa broke out in the DRC and has spread to neighboring countries with more than 15,600 reported cases and 537 deaths, mainly due to the fast spread of the clade 1b mpox virus via human-to-human transmission.
Clade Ib mpox can be transmitted via regular interpersonal contact or sexual activities, and is therefore more contagious than clade 2b, he said.
The fatality rate of clade 1b is 3.6 percent, 18 times higher than clade 2b, with most people infected being young adults and children, Lo said.
Data from the CDC showed that the mpox epidemic in Taiwan is still rising, with a cumulative total of 399 cases, including 377 domestic and 22 imported cases, since the disease was listed as “category 2 communicable disease” on June 23, 2022.
There have been 40 mpox cases this year, of which 37 have been domestic and three imported, it added.
There have not yet been any clade 1b-infected person in Taiwan, but a forum with non-governmental organizations would be convened today to strengthen hygiene education and promotion, Lo said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hui-chin, Esme Yeh and CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS