Geneva (dpa)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has for the first time granted emergency approval for an mpox test, it said in a statement issued at its headquarters in Geneva on Friday.
This will allow UN agencies to purchase this test from the US company Abbott Molecular to distribute in affected countries and regions, it said.
The test can detect the mpox virus faster and more easily than before.
If more people are tested for the virus, measures to contain its spread can be implemented more quickly, the statement said.
Mpox was formerly known as monkey pox. Three other companies have submitted applications for emergency approval, according to the WHO.
More than 30,000 suspected cases of mpox have been reported in Africa this year, most of them in Congo.
The number of reported cases has recently risen sharply in neighbouring countries such as Burundi. However, only one in three cases there results in a sample being sent to a laboratory where the virus can be detected.
In August, the WHO declared its highest level of alert, a "public health emergency of international concern" (PHEIC), because of mpox, in a bid to raise awareness of the emergency and mobilise more resources to combat the spread of the disease.
In Europe, where outbreaks were well controlled in 2022, the risk of mpox spreading again is considered low.
The WHO can grant an emergency use listing if regulatory authorities have not yet done so, and tests the safety and efficacy of products and diagnostics, among other things, as well as the quality of their manufacture.
In the EU, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is responsible for such approvals. Countries that do not have their own regulatory authority rely on the WHO decision.