The World Health Organization declared on Wednesday, August 14, that the current smallpox epidemic, also known as “monkeypox,” constitutes a global public health emergency. A new strain of the epidemic, “clade 1b,” discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Africa, is at stake and is spreading rapidly, which is why the United Nations body decided to meet in a state of emergency and issue an alert of international concern.
“today [quarta-feira]The Emergency Committee met and informed me that the situation, in their view, constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. “I have accepted that advice,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.News Magazine“. “In the coming days and weeks, WHO is committed to coordinating the global response, working closely with each affected country and leveraging our presence on the ground to prevent transmission, treat those infected and save lives.He added.
So far, since the beginning of 2024, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has recorded more than 14,000 cases of “Category 1B” and about 500 deaths, and this epidemic has already spread to 13 other African countries, including Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.according to CNN PortugalTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus even went so far as to say that the situation is not “even under control,” because this epidemic is “not local,” with “several foci of several variants,” as well as “different levels of risk and means of transmission.”
This is not the first time that the World Health Organization has considered smallpox a global public health emergency. A similar outbreak occurred in the summer of 2022, in a state that lasted until May 2023. At that time, the variant that was prevalent in several European countries was “Clade 2”, which was even recorded in Portugal, according to the newspaper “Expresses” However, the WHO director stressed that the new strain in African countries is “more deadly,” and while the spread in 2022 occurred through close contact between humans, “clade 1b” can spread from animals to humans or consumption of contaminated meat.
What could help control the situation in Africa, according to CNN Portugalis the distribution of vaccines, as happened in 2022. According to Madou Bai, quoted by the Portuguese media, from the McGill School of Global Health, in Canada, a total of 10 million vaccines are needed to be able to stay on top of the world situation. However, only 200,000 are available.
