Enlarge / A negative stain electron micrograph of a monkeypox virus virion in human vesicular fluid.
The World Health Organization is currently reconsidering whether to declare the growing multinational smallpox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the agency’s highest alert level.
The deliberations come as the global count of monkeypox cases exceeds 16,000, and a new report of an unexplained case in a child in the Netherlands raises alarm about the possible spread of the virus.
On Thursday, the WHO emergency committee met for seven hours to assess the state of the outbreak. It was the second time that the Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, convened the group of international experts. At the previous meeting, almost a month ago, the committee expressed its concern about the situation, but generally concluded that it had not yet reached the level of PHEIC.
That June decision drew criticism from some in the public health community, who felt the committee had “kicked ass.” Critics further worried that the decision would undermine the ability of a PHEIC statement to help get ahead of an infectious disease outbreak.
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The outcome of yesterday’s meeting is still unclear. The committee is now finalizing a report to the director general, and the agency told Ars there is no set timetable for when the outcome will be announced.
As it stands, WHO received reports of more than 16,000 cases from 71 Member States spanning the six WHO-designated world regions. The epicenter of the outbreak remains Europe. Five people have died from the multinational outbreak, three in Nigeria and two in the Central African Republic.
While some countries are beginning to report declining trends in cases, Tedros noted, other countries are now beginning to identify cases. Six countries reported their first cases last week, he told a news conference on Wednesday.
The vast majority of cases continue to be identified in men who have sex with men (MSM).
“This pattern of transmission represents both an opportunity to implement targeted public health interventions and a challenge because in some countries, affected communities face life-threatening discrimination,” Tedros said at the start of the meeting of Thursday’s emergency committee.
The continued spread of the virus, especially in countries where people face significant barriers to care, only increases the risk that the virus will spread further and to more vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and children, they fear health experts.