UN health agency convening experts meeting to decide if mpox outbreak in Africa is global emergency

The World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday an emergency committee will be convened to discuss whether the current mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo represents a public health emergency of international concern.

The current mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has already seen around 27,000 cases, and claimed more than 1,100 lives, most of them children, since the beginning of 2023.

(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Unnamalai L in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)