WEDNESDAY, June 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) – An emergency commission of independent experts will meet next week to determine whether the growing outbreak of monkeypox, which has spread to dozens of countries, should be declared an international health emergency, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday.
This is the highest level of concern for viral outbreaks, and it would mean that the WHO usually sees the rare disease as an ongoing threat to nations around the world, the Associated Press reported.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adanom Gebrejesus said he had decided to convene an emergency commission because of the “unusual” spread of monkeypox in countries far beyond parts of Africa where it is endemic. “We also believe that there is a need for a coordinated response due to geographical distribution,” he told reporters, according to the AP.
The number of cases is growing every day and there are “many gaps in knowledge about the dynamics of the transmission,” said Ibrahima Sose Fol, MD, director of the WHO Emergency Service for Africa. “With the advice of the emergency committee, we can be in a better position to control the situation. But this does not mean that we are going straight to an emergency in public health of international importance. We don’t want to wait until the situation is out of control to start calling the emergency committee. “
The UN Health Agency recommends “reasonable” use of vaccines, not mass vaccination, and said basic measures to control the outbreak include surveillance, follow-up and isolation of patients. More than 1,600 cases and nearly 1,500 suspected cases have been reported this year in 39 countries, including seven where monkeypox has been occurring for years, Tedros said.
72 deaths have been reported, but none in the newly affected countries such as Britain, Canada, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United States.
Associated Press article
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