(UPDATE) GENEVA, Switzerland — The World Health Organization's emergency committee will meet next Wednesday to decide whether to trigger its highest alert level over an mpox outbreak sweeping through several African countries.

The WHO said in a note to journalists that the closed virtual meeting will start at 1000 GMT Wednesday.

"The Committee will provide me with its views on whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern," WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

If that turns out to be the case they will advise on "how to better prevent and reduce the spread of the disease," he added.

Formerly known as monkeypox, mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

The disease causes fever, muscle aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the country currently most affected by the latest outbreak, with 14,479 confirmed and suspected cases by August 3 and 455 deaths, according to the African Union's health agency.