By D. Michael DeRidder
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced yesterday in a news release that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared a monkeypox (mpox) public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) after outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries.
Tedros said a coordinated international response is necessary to stop the monkeypox outbreak:
The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives.
Earlier today, Sweden confirmed its first case of the virus, with Swedish Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed stating at a news conference, “We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I.”
Following the monkeypox global outbreak in 2022, the WHO announced they would begin using a “new preferred term” for the infectious viral disease, with “mpox” replacing the name it was given in 1970. The news release stated the WHO reasoning for the name change:
Considerations for the recommendations included rationale, scientific appropriateness, extent of current usage, pronounceability, usability in different languages, absence of geographical or zoological references, and the ease of retrieval of historical scientific information…. WHO will adopt the term mpox in its communications, and encourages others to follow these recommendations, to minimize any ongoing negative impact of the current name and from adoption of the new name.