The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergencydeclared this Saturday the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusat a press conference.
“We have an outbreak that has spread rapidly around the world through new modes of transmission, about which we understand very little and which meets the criteria” for a public health emergency, Dr. Tedros told reporters.
Announcing the decision to declare the health emergency during a press conference in Geneva, Tedros confirmed that the committee appointed to declare the emergency had failed to reach a consensus after their meeting since Thursday. Nevertheless, the final decision rests with the CEO of the UN agency.
This is the second time in two years that the WHO has declared a global emergencyin 2020 it was because of the spread of Covid-19 and now because of the speed with which the monkeypox outbreak has spread to dozens of countries and infected tens of thousands of people.
So far this year, there have been more than 16,000 cases in 75 countries, about five times the number of cases when the advisers met in June. Furthermore, it has been reported five deaths in Africa.
Tedros added that according to the WHO assessment “the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European regionwhere we assess the risk as high.”
However, he stressed that there is a clear risk of further international spread, although “the risk of interference with international traffic remains low for the time being“.
According to the organization, a “public health emergency of international concern” is designed to sound an alarm that a coordinated international response and it could unlock global funds and efforts to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments.
The designation can lead member countries to invest significant resources to control an outbreak, obtain more funds for the response and encourage nations to share vaccines, treatments and other key resources to contain the outbreak.