The World Health Organization declares monkey pox outbreaks are a global Health emergency

Question

The World Health Organization has declared the mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency. In 2022, WHO declared mpox to be a global emergency after it spread to more than 70 countries that had not previously reported mpox. WHO said there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in Africa this year, which already exceeded last year’s figures. Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new form of the deadlier form of mpox, which can kill up to 10% of people, in a Congolese mining town that they feared might spread more easily.

Answer 1

This claim is true. According to the World health organization's own website, Mpox has been a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) since 2022, but in May of 2023, the PHEIC was declared over due to a decline in global cases. Recently Last year there was around 15 600 cases and 537 deaths. Due to this, in August of 2024, the PHEIC was reinstated. As a result, the WHO is working with many countries in central and west Africa like the Dominican  Republic of the Congo and Nigeria to distribute vaccines. Though this might be declared as a PHEIC, according to the University of California San Francisco, people in the west shouldn't be worried about a global pandemic, as mpox already has a vaccine developed, as well as being transmitted by sexual activity, not through the air like COVID is. While Monkeypox is a dangerous disease, with helps of vaccines, it should be stomped soon and shouldn't be something for people not in Africa to worry about. 

Answer 2

This statement is true. The World Health Organization’s own website published an article that their Director General determined the upsurge of monkeypox in the Congo and in Africa to be a Public Health Emergency under the International Health Regulations, which is the highest level of alarm under the IHR. 

 

The Lancet wrote of how this outbreak in Africa led to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to declare its first ever Public Health Emergency. It also says that in 2022, the WHO declared mpox a PHEIC following the global outbreaks, which proves the claim to be true as well.

 

I fact checked Africa CDC’s website, and they too write that the monkeypox outbreak in Africa was declared a PHEIC by the WHO from May 2022 to July 2023.

 

https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2024-DON528

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(24)00577-2/fulltext

https://africacdc.org/news-item/africa-cdc-declares-mpox-a-public-health-emergency-of-continental-security-mobilizing-resources-across-the-continent/#:~:text=Addis%20Ababa%2C%20Ethiopia%2C%2013%20Aug,since%20its%20inception%20in%202017

Answer 3

From the title of the article, the reader can assume that the article is going to be about an emerging outbreak of the Monkeypox virus in Africa, and how a new form of the virus is spreading and is causing a global health emergency. They have raw data from the CDC with links, as well as quotes from the director-general of the WHO. I searched the quote in the article and found many other articles explaining that the WHO was declaring a global health emergency. I went directly to the WHO's website, who.int, and found their page on Monkeypox. At the bottom of that page, it explains that the director-general has declared Monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern twice, once in May 2022, and most recently in August of 2024. I would consider this claim to be true.