Consider yourself warned. The World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing to issue an international "guidance" on the best possible way to address the global Mpox virus epidemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Thursday from the organization's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WHO's warning comes as China announced it would monitor people and goods entering the country for the Mpox virus over the next six months, and Pakistan confirmed the first case of a new variant of the virus in Asia, a day after Sweden reported the first case outside Africa.
Tedros spoke after declaring that a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is now in effect due to the outbreak of the Mpox virus in Africa, as reported by Breitbart News.
He stated that WHO is ready to respond and has prepared orders for issuance:
"The Emergency Committee is currently working on interim recommendations, which we will issue in the coming days, to provide guidance on addressing the acute threat of the Mpox disease in countries that are affected or at risk."
Furthermore, Tedros extended for another year the standing recommendations he issued when he declared the end of the previous Mpox PHEIC last year. These recommendations offer more general guidance for managing the chronic global risk of the Mpox virus.
Tedros went on to describe that so far this year, 15,664 cases of Mpox have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone, with 537 deaths, already surpassing last year's total, which was itself a record.
The virus, formerly known as monkeypox, was first identified in humans in 1970 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus that can be transmitted to humans from infected animals but can also spread from person to person through close physical contact.
The disease causes fever, muscle aches, and large skin lesions that resemble pimples, and it has previously appeared not only in Africa but also in other parts of the world.
Tedros's move to warn the world came as the Swedish government announced the first confirmed case of a more severe Mpox strain diagnosed outside of Africa.
Swedish Minister of Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed said in Stockholm: "We have now received confirmation during the afternoon that we have a case of the more severe variant of the virus," reports Dagens Nyheter.
Speaking alongside him, Public Health Agency Director Olivia Wigzel confirmed, "The case is the first caused by the variant of the virus that has been diagnosed outside the African continent."
