The Hill The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a meeting later this month to determine whether the mpox outbreak occurring in Africa still constitutes a a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared in August that the “upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a growing number of countries in Africa” constituted a public health emergency of international concern. The mpox strain at the center of the outbreak is separate from the strain that caused the 2022 outbreak in nonendemic countries.
As of Nov. 3, there have been 11,148 confirmed cases and 53 deaths across 19 countries due to the mpox outbreak this year. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Uganda are considered to be the most impacted. In Africa, 15 countries are considered to have active, ongoing outbreaks of mpox.