Declaring a public health emergency can help governments coordinate their response and increase the flow of medical supplies and assistance to affected areas.
Health officials outside Africa will also be monitoring the situation to assess the risk of further spread of the outbreak.
On July 29, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said the risk from the mpox virus in Europe was “very low.”
Mpox is spread from animals to people, and also from person to person through close contact with an infected person. This includes sexual intercourse, skin-to-skin contact, and talking or breathing close to another person.
It can cause symptoms such as fever, muscle pain, and systemic lesions. If left untreated, mpox can be fatal.
There are two main strains of the virus known. The weaker strain caused a global outbreak in 2022 that affected Europe, Australia, the United States, and several other countries, and was spread primarily through sexual contact.
The second deadliest variant of the virus to spread endemicly in Central Africa is behind a new variant recently discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
There are three vaccines, which are generally only available to people at risk for infection or those who have had close contact with an infected person.
