The fast-spreading monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency, the World Health Organization’s highest alert level, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday.
The WHO label – a “public health emergency of international concern” – is designed to sound the alarm that a coordinated international response is needed and could unlock funding and global efforts to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments
Members of an expert panel that met on Thursday to discuss the possible recommendation were split on the decision, two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters earlier, but the final decision rests with the director general of the UN agency.
Announcing his decision to declare the health emergency during a media conference in Geneva, Tedros confirmed that the committee had not reached a consensus, with nine members against and six in favor of the declaration.
Previously, Tedros had typically backed the expert committee’s recommendations, but sources said he had likely decided to back the higher alert level because of concerns about rising case rates and shortages supply of vaccines and treatments, despite the lack of majority opinion.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law in Washington, DC who follows the WHO, said he applauded the agency’s political courage.
“It does nothing but stiffen the stature of the WHO. The right outcome is clear: not to declare an emergency at this time would be a missed historic opportunity.”
So far this year, there have been more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox in more than 75 countries and five deaths in Africa.
The viral disease, which is spread by close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions, has spread primarily among men who have sex with men during the recent outbreak outside Africa, where it is endemic.
JUNE MEETING
Until now, the label had only been applied to the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing efforts to eradicate polio.
WHO and national governments have faced intense pressure from scientists and public health experts to take more action against monkeypox.
Cases of the viral disease have increased since the committee first met in late June, when there were only about 3,000 cases.
The panel of experts then agreed to reconsider its position on the emergency declaration if the outbreak escalated.
One of the key questions prompting a reassessment was whether the cases, which are almost entirely proliferating among men who have sex with men, would bleed over to other groups, particularly children or others who have been vulnerable to the virus in past outbreaks in countries endemic
On Friday, the United States identified its first two cases of smallpox in children.
Any changes to the virus itself could also prompt a rethink, the committee said.
The group is now split between those who believe an emergency declaration would speed up efforts to contain the disease and those who believe the earlier criteria have not been met because the disease has not yet spread to new groups of people or has had a high mortality rate. , the sources said.