The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency – the biggest alarm it can sound – after its “extraordinary” spread to more than 70 countries.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts working on the UN health agency’s Emergency Committee.
It was the first time the head of the UN health agency had taken such action.
“We have an outbreak that has spread rapidly around the world through new modes of transmission that we understand very little about and that meet the criteria in international health regulations,” Tedros said.
“I know that this is not an easy or straightforward process and that there are differing opinions among committee members,” he added.
A global emergency is the WHO’s highest level of alert, but the designation does not necessarily mean that the disease is particularly transmissible or deadly.
The WHO’s head of emergencies, Dr Michael Ryan, said the director-general made the decision to place monkeypox in this category to ensure the global community takes the current outbreaks seriously.
The U.N. health agency’s declaration could spur further investment in treatments for the once-rare disease — and also worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.
Monkeypox has affected more than 15,800 people in 72 countries, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on July 20 (stock image)
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (above) made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts working on the UN health agency’s Emergency Committee
Doctor Molly Dickinson administers a dose of monkeypox vaccine to Arthur Macedo, 37, in London
Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to cause large outbreaks outside the continent or spread widely among humans until May, when authorities discovered dozens of outbreaks in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
The declaration of a global emergency means that the monkeypox outbreak is an “extraordinary event” that could spread to more countries and requires a coordinated global response.
The WHO has previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the 2016 Zika virus in Latin America and the ongoing polio eradication effort.
The emergency declaration serves mostly as a call to bring more global resources and attention to an epidemic.
Monkeypox has affected more than 15,800 people in 72 countries, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on July 20.
Since early May, a surge in monkeypox infections has been reported outside West and Central African countries, where the disease has long been endemic.
Authorities urge gay and bisexual men to be aware of new lesions, rashes or scabs and to contact a sexual health clinic
Pictured: The first monkeypox patient to go public is a gay human resources manager from London
The first British monkeypox patient to go public is a human resources manager from London who contracted the virus after being deported from Dubai for testing positive for HIV, MailOnline has revealed.
James M, 35, spoke out after he said health chiefs had still not contacted him despite being diagnosed with monkeypox almost two weeks ago.
He criticized the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) for “a real lack of any basic process or care to stop the spread” of the tropical virus, which has so far infected more than 300 Britons, mostly gay and bisexual men.
James, who wished to keep his surname anonymous, admitted he was not following self-isolation rules because “I was told to stay at home until the UKHSA contacted me… and they never did.”
He accused the UK of a lax approach to contact tracing, saying it was “no wonder” Britain had more cases than any other country outside Africa. There is also a lack of awareness of the lesser-known symptoms of monkeypox, he claims.
James was adjusting to life in west London when he started suffering from “really weird pains” in his lower back, exhaustion, extreme thirst and pain when using the toilet.
He became convinced he had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) after sleeping with about 10 new partners in the weeks before his symptoms began.
“I’m a gay man and having just come back to the UK I’ve been having a good time,” he told MailOnline.
But medics mistakenly assumed it wasn’t monkeypox because he didn’t have the telltale rash of the virus.
James M, 35, became the first British monkeypox patient to go public
On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee (EC) of experts to decide whether monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) – the UN health agency’s highest level of alert.
But the majority informed Tedros that the situation at this point had not reached the threshold.
A second meeting was called on Thursday, with the number of cases rising even further, where Tedros said he was worried.
“I need your advice in assessing the immediate and medium-term consequences for public health,” Tedros said at the meeting, which lasted more than six hours.
The WHO’s top monkeypox expert, Dr Rosamund Lewis, said this week that 99 percent of all monkeypox cases outside Africa were in men, and that of those, 98 percent involved men who have sex with men .
Experts suspect that monkeypox epidemics in Europe and North America were spread through sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.
“While I am currently declaring a public health emergency of international concern, this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, particularly those with multiple sexual partners,” Tedros said.
“That means it’s an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups.”
Emergencies chief Ryan explained what preceded the director-general’s decision: “(Tedros) found that the committee had not reached a consensus even though there had been a very open, very useful, very thoughtful debate on the issues and that because he had not against the commission, what he recognizes is that there is a deep complexity to this issue,” Ryan said.
“There is uncertainty on all sides. And he reflects that uncertainty and his determination to make the event a global emergency.
A US health expert issued a grim warning late Friday.
“Since the last #monkeypox EC just weeks ago, we have seen an exponential increase in cases,” Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center for National and Global Health, said on Twitter.
“It is inevitable that cases will increase dramatically in the coming weeks and months. This is why @DrTedros should sound the global alarm.”
“Failure to act will have serious consequences for global health.”
The European Union’s medicines watchdog on Friday recommended for approval the use of Imnavex, a smallpox vaccine, to treat monkeypox.
Imvanex, developed by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic, has been approved in the EU since 2013 to prevent smallpox.
It was also considered a potential monkeypox vaccine because of the similarity between the monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus.
Monkeypox virus
A viral infection similar to smallpox and first discovered in humans in the 1970s, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in the 1980s.
Ninety-five percent of cases were transmitted through sexual activity, according to a study of 528 people in 16 countries published in the New England Journal of Medicine – the largest study to date.
Overall, 98 percent of infected people were gay or bisexual men, and about a third were known to have attended on-site sex venues such as sex parties or saunas in the previous month.
The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headache, muscle aches and back pain for five days.
Subsequently, rashes appear on the face, palms of the hands and feet, followed by lesions, spots and finally scabs.
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