WHO declares Mpox global health emergency #BBCnewslive #BBCLondon #BBCnews
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the mpox outbreak in parts of Africa a public health emergency of international concern.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the mpox outbreak in parts of Africa a public health emergency of international concern.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The World Health Organization has declared the MPOX outbreak in parts of Africa a public
00:06health emergency of international concern. The highly contagious disease, formerly known as
00:12monkeypox, has killed at least 450 people during an initial outbreak in the Democratic Republic
00:19of Congo. It has now spread across parts of Central and East Africa, and scientists are
00:24concerned about how fast a new variant of the disease is spreading and its high fatality rate.
00:30WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the potential for further spread within Africa and
00:36beyond is very worrying. A coordinated international response is essential to stop
00:42this outbreak and save lives, he said. MPOX is transmitted through close contact,
00:48such as sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or breathing close to another person.
00:53It causes flu-like symptoms, skin lesions and can be fatal,
00:57with four in 100 cases leading to death. Two main strains of the virus have been circulating.
01:04While clade I is endemic in Central Africa, clade IB is a new, more virulent form of the virus,
01:10which one scientist has described as the most dangerous yet. It is this new strain that is
01:16largely behind the WHO's declaration of a public health emergency of international concern.
01:22Since the start of the year, there have been more than 13,700 cases of the disease in the DR Congo,
01:29with at least 450 deaths. It has since been detected in other African countries,
01:35including Burundi, the Central African Republic, Kenya and Rwanda.
01:40It is hoped the declaration of MPOX as a public health emergency will lead to research,
01:45funding and the introduction of other international public health measures being accelerated.
01:51Dr Josie Goulding, from the Wellcome Trust, said it was a
01:55strong signal, while Emory University's Dr Boguma Taitangi said the move
02:00underscores the gravity of the crisis. Professor Trudy Lange,
02:04the director of the Global Health Network at the University of Oxford, said it was
02:09important and timely, but added that the emergence of a new strain meant there were
02:14many unknowns that need to be addressed.