The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene an emergency meeting on June 23 to assess whether to declare a “public health emergency” over the current world outbreak of monkeypox now or not.
In a statement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the current outbreak of monkeypox is so concerning and unusual that he has decided to convene an Emergency Committee meeting next week to assess assess whether this outbreak is a public health emergency.
The declaration of a global health emergency is considered the highest level of warning issued by WHO. Previously, the WHO had made a similar decision on the COVID-19 and polio epidemic.
According to WHO, since the beginning of the year, there have been 1,600 cases and 1,500 suspected cases and 72 deaths from monkeypox in 39 countries, including those that have not recorded this disease as an endemic disease.
[Monkeypox continues to spread, more than 30 countries have recorded cases]
In many countries in Africa, monkeypox is endemic. It often causes flu-like symptoms, causes skin lesions, and is usually transmitted by close contact. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time to consider strengthening prevention of the disease causing “monkey smallpox” because the disease was showing signs of unusual spread with more countries having recorded cases.
Therefore, there is a need for coordination between countries. The WHO’s director of emergencies in Africa, Ibrahima Socé Fall, stressed that he did not want to wait for the epidemic situation to get out of control. Source: Vietnamnet