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WHO Declares Monkeypox Outbreak Global Health Emergency
(RTTNews) - The World Health Organization has declared the rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern", despite majority of experts on advisory committee being against the declaration.
The WHO's move is aimed at boosting coordination and sharing of resources and information among nations.
The WHO said the global risk is moderate, but the threat is high in Europe.
The WHO noted that cases of monkeypox in the United States are widely distributed across the country, although most cases are concentrated in three large cities. While a few cases have occurred in children and a pregnant woman, 99% are related to male-to-male sexual contact.
The WHO Secretariat presented the global epidemiological situation, highlighting that between 1 January 2022 and 20 July 2022, 14,533 probable and laboratory-confirmed cases--including 3 deaths in Nigeria and 2 in the Central African Republic-- were reported to WHO from 72 countries across all six WHO Regions; up from 3,040 cases in 47 countries at the beginning of May 2022.
The WHO noted that the majority of reported cases of monkeypox currently are in males, and most of these cases occur among males who identified themselves as gay and bisexual.
There has also been a significant rise in the number of cases in countries in West and Central Africa, with an apparent difference in the demographic profile maintained than that observed in Europe and the Americas, with more women and children amongst the cases.
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