Mpox not the new COVID, says WHO
Al Jazeera
World Health Organization official says regardless of strain, mpox is not the new COVID, as authorities know how to control its spread.
The mpox outbreak is not another COVID-19, says the World Health Organization, because much is already known about the virus and the means to control it.
While more research is needed on the clade 1b strain which triggered the UN agency into declaring a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), the spread of mpox can be reined in, the WHO’s European director Hans Kluge said on Tuesday.
In July 2022, the WHO declared a PHEIC over the international outbreak of the less-severe clade 2b strain of mpox, which mostly affected gay and bisexual men. The alarm was lifted in May 2023.
“Mpox is not the new COVID,” Kluge insisted.
“We know how to control mpox. And, in the European region, the steps needed to eliminate its transmission altogether,” he told a media briefing in Geneva, via video-link.
