The World Health Organization will reconvene its monkeypox experts to decide if the worsening out-break now constitutes a global public health emer-gency, its chief said Wednesday.
The UN health agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he would hold a second meeting of the emergency committee on monkeypox, with more than 6,000 cases now confirmed in 58 countries.
A surge in monkeypox infections has been re-ported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.
“I continue to be concerned by the scale and spread of the virus,” Tedros told a press conference from the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.
“Testing remains a challenge and it’s highly probable that there are a significant number of cases not being picked up.
“Europe is the current epicentre of the outbreak, recording more than 80 percent of monkeypox cases globally.” Most monkeypox infections so far have been observed in men who have sex with men, of young age and chiefly in urban areas, according to the WHO. On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee of experts to decide if monkeypox con-stitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) — the highest alarm that the WHO can sound.
But a majority found the situation had not yet crossed that threshold. “My teams are following the data.
I plan to reconvene the emergency committee so they’re updated on the current epidemiology and evolution of the monkeypox outbreak, and imple-mentation of counter measures,” Tedros said.
“I will bring them together in the week of July 18 or sooner if needed.” – Fever and rash – The WHO’s 16-member emergency committee on monkeypox is chaired by Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele from the Democ-ratic Republic of Congo, who is a former director of the WHO’s Vaccines and Immunisation Department.—AP
