The World Health Organization said Thursday that the global smallpox outbreak, 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 tragic disaster. Decrease in cases in recent months.
Last July, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that smallpox, also known as monkeypox, is an “exceptional” situation that can be described as a global crisis. In doing so, he overturned the WHO’s expert panel, which did not recommend the emergency designation.
He said in a briefing Thursday that his panel of experts had concluded that the recent significant decline in cases, with cases dropping about 90% in the past three months, was no longer a major concern, the Associated Press reports.
Thursday’s announcement comes after the World Health Organization downgraded COVID-19 last week, when it said the worst part of the pandemic was over and that the coronavirus should be treated like other respiratory diseases.
Mpox has been established in parts of Central and West Africa for decades, where people are infected mainly by animals such as wild rodents. But the disease was not known to cause epidemic outbreaks outside the continent or to spread easily between people until last May, when dozens of epidemics emerged in Europe, North America, and elsewhere.
insignificant