The emergency is over. The work continues.
For the second time in three years, the World Health Organization has stepped back from its highest level of alarm over mpox, formally ending an international health emergency after case counts fell across the African nations most deeply affected. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus framed the decision not as triumph but as recalibration — a recognition that the arc of the outbreak has bent, even as the disease continues to circulate and claim lives. The emergency is lifted; the vigilance is not.
- More than 31,000 confirmed cases and 200 deaths in 2025 alone underscore how costly this outbreak has been, concentrated overwhelmingly in the DRC, Uganda, and Sierra Leone.
- Unlike the 2022–2023 emergency that swept through Europe and the Americas, this outbreak remained largely trapped within Africa, exposing deep inequities in global health response and vaccine access.
- The WHO's advisory committee, reviewing data every three months, found the downward trend sufficient to recommend lifting emergency status — a signal that coordinated vaccination, surveillance, and containment are beginning to hold.
- Six million vaccines distributed marks a logistical milestone, but the African Union is maintaining its own continental alert, signaling that the institutional memory of this crisis will not dissolve with the emergency declaration.
- Prevention guidelines remain active through August 2026, with particular focus on children and HIV-positive individuals — the populations whose vulnerability shaped the human cost of this outbreak most acutely.
On a Friday in early September, the World Health Organization formally closed the chapter it had opened on mpox's second international health emergency, with Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accepting his advisory committee's recommendation to lift the designation after months of declining case counts across Africa's hardest-hit nations.
This was not the first time the WHO had walked this road. The original mpox emergency, declared in 2022 and ended in 2023, had spread across Europe and the Americas as well as Africa. This second outbreak followed a different geography — concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Burundi — and carried a different human weight. The DRC alone recorded roughly 29,000 cases and 28 deaths since 2024; Uganda reported nearly 8,000 infections and 50 deaths; Sierra Leone confirmed over 5,200 cases and 56 fatalities. Many of those affected were children or people living with HIV, whose immune systems made severe illness far more likely.
Ghebreyesus was deliberate in his framing: ending the emergency is not declaring victory. The African Union's disease control centers continue to hold continental alert status, and the WHO is keeping prevention recommendations in place through at least August 2026. The threat of localized surges has not disappeared.
What has changed is the world's capacity to respond. Approximately six million vaccines were distributed during this emergency — an achievement that would have seemed impossible in the earliest days of the 2022 outbreak. Improved surveillance and a clearer understanding of transmission patterns created the conditions for the decline that made this recalibration possible. Since mpox first became a global concern, more than 150,000 cases and at least 377 deaths have been confirmed across both emergencies. The emergency is over. The disease is not gone.
On Friday, the World Health Organization formally ended its international health emergency declaration for mpox, a decision that came after months of steady decline in cases across the African nations hit hardest by the outbreak. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director general, announced the move during a press briefing, explaining that an advisory committee had reviewed the epidemic every three months and, at its most recent meeting, recommended lifting the emergency status. He accepted that recommendation.
This marks the second time the WHO has declared and then ended an international health emergency for mpox. The first emergency, which lasted from 2022 through 2023, had spread widely across Europe and the Americas alongside African countries. This second outbreak, by contrast, remained largely confined to the African continent, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Uganda bearing the heaviest burden. The shift in geography reflected a different pattern of transmission and a different set of challenges for public health response.
The numbers tell a story of both severity and, recently, improvement. Last year, confirmed cases reached at least 18,000 across all variants. This year, through the time of the announcement, that figure had climbed to roughly 31,000, with more than 200 deaths recorded. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone accounted for approximately 29,000 of those cases and 28 deaths since 2024 began. Uganda reported nearly 8,000 infections and 50 deaths, while Sierra Leone confirmed 5,200 cases and 56 fatalities. These numbers represent real people in real communities, many of them children or individuals already living with HIV, populations whose immune systems left them especially vulnerable to severe disease.
Yet Ghebreyesus was careful to frame the emergency's end not as a declaration of victory but as a recalibration of response. He stated plainly that lifting the emergency status does not mean the threat has vanished or that the WHO's work will stop. The African Union, through its own disease control centers, continues to maintain continental alert status. The possibility of new surges and localized outbreaks remains real, he cautioned, which is why maintaining active response capacity and sustained efforts to protect vulnerable populations remain essential. The WHO is keeping certain prevention recommendations in place through at least August 2026.
Over the past year, the global health system has learned more about what drives mpox outbreaks and has built stronger capacity to respond. That progress includes the distribution of approximately six million vaccines against the virus—a logistical achievement that would have been unthinkable in the early days of the first emergency. The combination of vaccination, improved surveillance, and better understanding of transmission patterns has created the conditions under which cases could decline enough to justify stepping back from emergency status.
Since 2022, when mpox first emerged as a global concern, the world has confirmed more than 150,000 cases across both emergencies, with at least 377 deaths. The disease remains present, still circulating, still capable of causing serious illness and death. What has changed is the trajectory and the world's readiness to manage it. The emergency is over. The work continues.
Citações Notáveis
The lifting of the emergency does not mean the threat has ended or that our response will stop— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General
The possibility of new surges and outbreaks persists, requiring active response capacity and continued efforts to protect vulnerable groups, particularly children and people living with HIV— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did the WHO wait until now to lift the emergency, if cases have been declining for months?
The committee meets every three months to assess the situation. They need to see sustained decline, not just a temporary dip. When they looked at the data this time, the trend was clear enough that they felt confident recommending the change.
Does ending the emergency mean the disease is gone?
Not at all. Ghebreyesus was explicit about that. It means the situation is no longer at the level of an international crisis requiring maximum mobilization. But the virus is still circulating, especially in Central Africa, and vulnerable people—children, people with HIV—are still at risk.
What's the difference between this outbreak and the first one?
The first one spread globally, hit Europe and the Americas hard. This one stayed mostly in Africa. That's partly about transmission patterns, partly about where the virus found footholds. But it also meant the response looked different—more focused, more regional.
Six million vaccines sounds like a lot. Was that enough?
It's a significant number, but Africa has over a billion people. The real achievement was getting those vaccines distributed at all, getting them to the places where cases were highest. It's not about vaccinating everyone; it's about breaking transmission chains in hot spots.
What happens if cases spike again?
The WHO keeps its prevention recommendations active through August 2026. The African Union is still watching closely. If there's a resurgence, the infrastructure and knowledge are in place to respond quickly. But the hope is that the decline continues.