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LONDON – Monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday, although WHO Director-General Tedros Adanom Gebreyesus said he was deeply concerned about the outbreak.
“I am deeply concerned about the monkeypox epidemic, which is clearly a growing health threat that my colleagues and I in the WHO Secretariat are following very closely,” Tedros said.
The label “global emergency” currently applies only to the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing efforts to eradicate polio, and the UN agency withdrew from applying it to the smallpox outbreak following advice from a meeting of international experts.
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There are more than 3,200 confirmed cases of monkeypox and one death reported in the last six weeks from 48 countries where it is not common, according to the WHO.
So far this year, almost 1,500 cases and 70 deaths have been reported in Central Africa, where the disease is more common, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Monkeypox, a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, is highly prevalent in men who have sex with men outside the countries where it is endemic.
It has two logs – the West African strain, which is estimated to have a mortality rate of around 1% and which is the strain that is spreading in Europe and elsewhere, and the strain in the Congo Basin, which has a mortality rate of closer to 10%, according to whom.
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Vaccines and treatments for monkeypox are available, although in limited quantities.
The WHO’s decision is likely to be met with some criticism from global health experts, who said before the meeting that the outbreak met the criteria to be called urgent.
However, others said the WHO was in a difficult position after COVID-19. Her declaration in January 2020 that the new coronavirus was a public health emergency was largely ignored by many governments until about six weeks later, when the agency used the word “pandemic” and countries took action.
(Report by Jennifer Rigby; additional report by Mrinmey Day; edited by Sandra Mahler)
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