WHO LAUNCHES STRATEGIC PLAN TO COMBAT MPOX OUTBREAKS

Why in the news?

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has brought a six-month international strategic plan to address the Mpox outbreak, now categorised as a public health emergency.
  • The plan, powerful from September 2024 to February 2025, calls for $135 million in investment.
source:pib

Global Response Plan:

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to cope with human-to-human transmission of mpox, following a public health emergency assertion on August 14.
  • The six-month plan, covering September 2024 to February 2025, requires $a hundred thirty five million for effective implementation.
  • It objectives to decorate surveillance, prevention, and response techniques, increase studies, and make sure equitable get entry to to scientific countermeasures.

Key Components:

  • Vaccination Campaign: Focuses on vaccinating excessive-hazard people, which include near contacts of new instances and healthcare workers.
  • Prevention Measures: Aims to reduce human-to-human transmission thru coordinated efforts at worldwide, regional, and national levels.

Leadership and Coordination:

  • WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stresses the want for a coordinated effort among worldwide companies, country wide and neighborhood companions, civil society, researchers, and manufacturers.
  • The plan adheres to principles of equity, unity, community empowerment, human rights, and move-quarter coordination.
  • Mpox, because of the Monkeypox virus, is currently affecting 14 African international locations, predominantly pushed via the greater virulent Clade Ib.
Key Facts approximately Mpox :

  • Mpox known as monkeypox, is a DNA virus from the Poxviridae circle of relatives.
  • Initially recognized in monkeys (1958), it additionally infects people, with transmission in the main from animals (rodents, primates) via direct contact.

Symptoms and Vaccination:

  • Symptoms encompass fever, headache, muscle aches, and a progressing rash.
  • A vaccine exists but with limited availability and effectiveness.

Global Impact and Genomics:

  • The 2022-2023 outbreak affected over 100,000 human beings globally.
  • WHO declared it a public health emergency due to excessive human-to-human transmission.
  • Genomic research identified new lineages (clade IIb) related to extended transmission and evolutionary diversifications.

What is Genomic?

  • Genomic : Refers to rhythmic expansions and contractions in an endemic’s genome size.
  • Mechanism: Driven by gene duplication or deletion in the genome.
  • Observation: Common in poxviruses like mpox, main to changes in length and content.