(Bloomberg) – The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting to assess whether the current spread of monkeypox is a public health emergency of international interest or PHEIC.
A special committee will meet next week to advise on spreading to non-endemic countries, Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, told a media conference on Wednesday. A PHEIC is the highest alert level in the WHO.
Smallpox, which has been affecting developing countries for years, has spread to Europe and the United States in recent weeks. The virus belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus, which includes smallpox virus, the cause of smallpox, but it is less contagious and the symptoms are milder. A large proportion of cases have occurred among men who have sex with men, and many have occurred within the sexual networks, although anyone can get the disease.
“The magnitude of the outbreak poses a real risk,” Kluge said. “The longer the virus has been circulating, the wider its spread and the stronger the spread of the disease in non-endemic countries.”
Europe remains the epicenter of the escalation of the outbreak, with 25 countries reporting more than 1,500 cases, or 85% of the world total, Kluge said. Some cases progress to “unpleasant complications,” such as secondary infections, and a small number of patients are hospitalized, the WHO said.
“We can still see a little more spread, but the effort is aimed at preventing a pandemic,” said Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
When the WHO declared PHEIC coronavirus in January 2020, there were fewer than 100 cases, two infections outside of China and no deaths.
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