GENEVA,
Switzerland — The
World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak,
which has affected nearly 17,000 people in 74 countries, to be a global health
emergency — the highest alarm it can sound.
اضافة اعلان
“I have decided that the global monkeypox
outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO
chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.
He said a committee of experts who met on
Thursday was unable to reach a consensus, so it fell to him to decide whether
to trigger the highest alert possible.
“WHO’s assessment is that the risk of
monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the
European region where we assess the risk as high,” he added.
Monkeypox has affected over 16,800 people in
74 countries, according to a tally by the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published on July 22.
A surge in monkeypox infections has been
reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where
the disease has long been endemic.
Overall, 98 percent of infected people were
gay or bisexual men, and around a third were known to have visited sex-on-site
venues such as sex parties or saunas within the previous month.
Tedros has previously expressed concern that
stigma and scapegoating could make the outbreak harder to track.
On Saturday, he said the outbreak was
“concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple
sexual partners” which meant it “can be stopped with the right strategies in
the right groups”.
He urged all countries to “work closely with
communities of men who have sex with men, to design and deliver effective
information and services, and to adopt measures that protect” the communities
affected.
Potential
vaccine
On
June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee of experts to decide if
monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International
Concern — the UN health agency’s highest alert level.
But a majority advised Tedros that the
situation, at that point, had not met the threshold.
The second meeting was called on Thursday
with case numbers rising further, where Tedros said he was worried.
“I need your advice in assessing the
immediate and mid-term public health implications,” Tedros told the meeting,
which lasted more than six hours.
A viral infection resembling smallpox and
first detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious
than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.
Ninety-five percent of cases have been
transmitted through sexual activity, according to a study of 528 people in 16
countries published in the New England Journal of Medicine — the largest
research to date.
The European Union’s drug watchdog on Friday
recommended for approval the use of Imvanex, a smallpox vaccine, to treat
monkeypox.
Imvanex, developed by Danish drugmaker
Bavarian Nordic, has been approved in the EU since 2013 for the prevention of
smallpox.
It was also considered a potential vaccine
for monkeypox because of the similarity between the monkeypox virus and the
smallpox virus.
The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever,
headaches, muscle pain and back pain during the course of five days.
Rashes subsequently appear on the face, the palms of
hands, and soles of the feet, followed by lesions, spots, and finally scabs.
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