Reassessment of monkeypox status can be done in the next 21 days.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GENEVA — Even though this is the case monkey pox has been found in about 50 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) has not declared the disease a global public health emergency. Even so, WHO asked countries to monitor the development of monkeypox in their respective countries carefully.
“Although several members expressed different views, the committee decided by consensus to advise the WHO director-general that for now, the current outbreak cannot be declared a global emergency,” the WHO’s emergency committee said in a statement. WebMDThursday (30/6/2022).
According to the WHO’s emergency committee, the current monkeypox outbreak is indeed unusual. They also highlighted that monkeypox cases in endemic countries had been neglected for years before finally spreading to non-endemic countries. About 80 percent of non-endemic countries that find cases of monkeypox are located in Europe.
Since May to date, there have been more than 3,200 cases of monkeypox in the world reported to the WHO. A total of 201 cases of them were detected in the United States, with a distribution of 51 cases in California, 35 cases in New York, and 26 cases in Illinois.
Most confirmed cases of monkeypox are in men, especially gay, bisexual men, and men who have sex with other men. Most cases are also found in urban areas and among dense social groups and sexual networks.
The signs of monkeypox that have emerged so far seem atypical. Lesions that appear are not so numerous and occur in the genital, anal, and oral areas. These lesions do not spread to other areas of the body.
Other accompanying symptoms are fever, fatigue, and swollen lymph nodes. Several cases of monkeypox required hospitalization and one case of death occurred in monkeypox patients with immune disorders.
Although it has not yet been declared a world emergency, the WHO committee is calling on affected countries to control the spread with an intense response. This monkeypox outbreak needs to be monitored closely.
Reassessment can be done within 21 days if the spread is more rapid, the disease appears to be more severe, or it has spread to a wider group, such as people with HIV, immunocompromised people, pregnant women, or children.
“I am very concerned about the spread of monkeypox,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus PhD.
