Faced once again with a rapidly spreading epidemic of mpox, the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared a global health emergency.
The last time the W.H.O. made that call was in 2022, when the disease was still called monkeypox. Ultimately the outbreak affected nearly 100,000 people worldwide, primarily gay and bisexual men, including more than 32,000 in the United States.
The W.H.O.’s decision this time was prompted by an escalating crisis of mpox concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It recently spread to a dozen other African countries. If it is not contained, the virus again may rampage all over the world, experts warned.