WHO To Convene Expert Meeting To Decide If Mpox Outbreak In Africa Is A Global Emergency

The AP (8/7) reports World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “said Wednesday he will convene an expert group to determine if the increasing spread of the mpox virus in Africa warrants being declared a global emergency.” Citing the increasing prevalence of mpox cases outside of Congo, Tedros said he has decided to request that independent experts advise WHO “as soon as possible.” Reuters (8/7, Satija, L) reports, “The WHO said that 50 more mpox cases had been confirmed and more were suspected in four countries – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda – where cases have previously not been reported.” Due to this development, the organization has “released $1 million from the WHO contingency fund for emergencies to support scale up of the response,” Tedros said on a call with journalists, with plans to release more funds in the coming days. Bloomberg (8/7, Oladele, Subscription Publication) reports the mutated strain of mpox has most affected “children and adolescents,” causing “almost 500 deaths related to the infection in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, where the variant was first reported less than a year ago.”