Monkeypox epidemic, WHO will hold emergency committee meeting

GENEVA – The World Health Organization (WHO) will establish an emergency expert committee to determine whether an outbreak monkey pox which has mysteriously spread beyond Africa should be considered a global health emergency.

director General WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he decided to convene an emergency committee on June 23 because the virus has recently shown “unusual” behavior by spreading in countries far beyond the parts of Africa where it is endemic.

“We believe that it also requires some coordinated response due to geographic spread,” he told reporters US NewsWednesday (15/6/2022).

Declaring monkeypox as an international health emergency would give it the same designation as the COVID-19 pandemic and would mean the WHO considers the normally rare disease an ongoing threat to countries globally.

Britain on Monday said it had 470 cases of monkeypox across the country, with the vast majority in gay or bisexual men. British scientists last week said they did not know if the spread of the disease in the UK had peaked.

Read also: Monkeypox Virus Spreads, Greece Confirms First Case

“Meetings of outside experts can also help increase understanding and knowledge about the virus,” Tedros said, as WHO released new guidelines on monkeypox vaccination.

Ibrahima Soce Fall, WHO’s Emergency Director for Africa, said the number of cases was increasing every day and health officials faced many gaps in knowledge about the dynamics of transmission both in Africa and beyond the continent.

“With the advice of the emergency committee, we can be in a better position to control the situation. But that doesn’t mean that we are heading straight for a public health emergency of international concern,” he said, referring to the WHO’s highest alert level for a virus outbreak.

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