The World Health Organization has declared the rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak a ‘global health emergency
The classification is the highest alert that the UN health agency can issue and was decided on at the end of the second meeting of the WHO’s emergency monkeypox committee.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus personally intervened to overrule the divided panel. Nine members of the committee were against declaring the monkeypox outbreak an emergency, while only six were in favor.
Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus………sound familiar?
Health officials are already recommending people at highest risk of exposure to the virus, including some gay and bisexual men and some healthcare workers, should be offered a vaccination.
BBC reports: More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.
There are only two other such health emergencies at present – the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.
Dr Tedros said the emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency.
However, he said the outbreak had spread around the world rapidly and he had decided that it was indeed of international concern.
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