WHO declares mpox is no longer public health emergency of global concern

WHO declares mpox is no longer public health emergency of global concern

Subject : International Relations

Section: International Organisation

Context: The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that mpox was no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on May 11, 2023.

More on the News:

• The announcement came a day after the fifth meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) Emergency Committee.
• Emergency Committee acknowledged the progress made in the global response to the multi-country outbreak of mpox and the further decline in the number of reported cases since the last meeting
• The panel also stressed the integration of mpox prevention, preparedness and response within national surveillance and control programmes, including for HIV and other sexually transmissible infections, as an important element of this longer-term transition.

International Health Regulations

About:

• While disease outbreaks and other acute public health risks are often unpredictable and require a range of responses, the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) provide an overarching legal framework that defines countries’ rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential to cross borders.
• The IHR are an instrument of international law that is legally-binding on 196 countries, including the 194 WHO Member States. The IHR grew out of the response to deadly epidemics that once overran Europe.
• They create rights and obligations for countries, including the requirement to report public health events. The Regulations also outline the criteria to determine whether or not a particular event constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern”. 
• At the same time, the IHR require countries to designate a National IHR Focal Point for communications with WHO, to establish and maintain core capacities for surveillance and response, including at designated points of entry.
• Additional provisions address the areas of international travel and transport such as the health documents required for international traffic.
• Finally, the IHR introduce important safeguards to protect the rights of travellers and other persons in relation to the treatment of personal data, informed consent and non-discrimination in the application of health measures under the Regulations.

Implementation:

• The responsibility for implementing the IHR rests upon all States Parties that are bound by the Regulations and on WHO. Governments are responsible, including all of their sectors, ministries, levels, officials and personnel for implementing IHR at the national level.
• WHO plays the coordinating role in IHR implementation and, together with its partners, helps countries to build capacities.
• The IHR require that all countries have the ability to do the following:
  • Detect: Make sure surveillance systems can detect acute public health events in timely matter
  • Assess and report: Use the decision instrument in Annex 2 of the IHR to assess public health event and report to WHO through their National IHR Focal Point those that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern
  • Respond: Respond to public health risks and emergencies
• The goal of country implementation is to limit the spread of health risks to neighbouring countries and to prevent unwarranted travel and trade restrictions.

Preparedness:

• WHO’s support focuses on the priority needs identified by the WHO Regional and Country Offices, in order to help each country meet its IHR commitment. This includes:
  • designating WHO IHR Contact Points at the headquarters or the regional level;
  • conducting global public health surveillance and assessment of significant public health events;
  • disseminating public health information to Member States;
  • offering technical assistance to Member States;
  • supporting Member States in their efforts to assess their existing national public health structures and capacities for surveillance and response, including at designated points of entry;
  • monitoring the implementation of IHR (2005) and updating guidelines; and
  • if required, determining whether or not a particular event constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), with advice from external experts.
• If a PHEIC is declared, WHO develops and recommends the critical health measures for implementation by Member States during such an emergency.

Monkeypox

• Monkeypox was first report­ed in 1958 in laboratory mon­keys and the first human case was reported in 1970 in a nine ­month­ old baby in the Democratic Republic of Con­go.
• Nigeria reported its first case of monkeypox in hu­mans in 1970 when one case was detected; there were two human cases of monkeypox in Nigeria in 1978.
• And after nearly four decades of not reporting any cases, monkeypox (West African clade) made a re-emergence in Nigeria in September 2017 with a total of 558 cases reported till now.
• In November last year, the disease’s name was changed by WHO from ‘monkeypox’ to ‘mpox’ to reduce racial and sexual stigma surrounding it.

Spread:

• Based on epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 122 confirmed or probable cases of human monkeypox cases in Nigeria, researchers found both primary zoonotic and human­ to ­human trans­mission.
• Like all diseases that are endemic only to Africa, while efforts were made to prevent an outbreak in the non-­endemic countries out­side Africa, no serious inter­national attempts were made to stop the outbreak in Nige­ria nor study the virus characteristics.
• The current outbreak in Eu­rope and North America is the first instance when large­ scale human­ to­ human transmission has been re­ported outside Africa.
• There are no clear answ­ers to how humans are in­fected as the host animal that behaves as a reservoir for the virus has not been identified in the wild. And how the vi­rus spreads from animals to humans is not known.
• The current outbreak ap­pears to have spread prima­rily among men who have sex with men.
• The virus is not transmitted through se­men or vaginal fluids but the skin ­to ­skin contact during sex can result in virus spread.

Low mutation rate

• Till date over 15 monkeypox genomes have been se­quenced. But the monkey­pox virus has a lower muta­tion rate (about two mutations a year) compared to nearly 25 mutations in a year in the case of SARS­ CoV­2 virus.
• This is because monkeypox is a DNA virus unlike the SARS­CoV­2, which is an RNA virus.
• It is yet un­clear if the virus has acquired the ability of sustained trans­mission among humans.

Covid is no longer an emergency: https://optimizeias.com/covid-is-no-longer-an-emergency/