Some leading experts in infectious diseases are pushing for faster action by global health authorities to contain a growing smallpox outbreak that has spread to at least 20 countries. They argue that governments and the World Health Organization should not repeat the first mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic that delayed the detection of cases, aiding the spread of the virus. Although monkeypox is not as transmissible or dangerous as COVID-19, these scientists say, there needs to be clearer guidance on how to isolate a person infected with monkeypox. explicit on how to protect people at risk and improvements in testing and trials. contact tracking. “If this becomes endemic (in most countries), we will have another nasty disease and many difficult decisions to make,” said Isabelle Eckerle, a professor at the Center for Emerging Viral Diseases in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is considering whether the outbreak should be assessed as a possible public health emergency of international interest (PHEIC), an official told Reuters. A WHO determination that an outbreak is a global health emergency, as it did with COVID-19 or Ebola, would help speed up research and funding to contain a disease. “It’s always under consideration, but there’s still no emergency committee (on monkeypox),” said Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s health emergency program, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the agency in Geneva. However, experts say that the WHO is unlikely to reach this conclusion soon, because the smallpox of the monkey is a known threat that the world has tools to combat. Discussing whether to create an emergency committee, the body that recommends declaring a PHEIC, is only part of the agency’s routine response, WHO officials said. Eckerle called on the WHO to encourage countries to implement more coordinated and stringent containment measures even without a declaration of emergency. He is concerned that talking about the virus being mild, as well as the availability of vaccines and treatments in some countries, “could potentially lead to lazy behavior on the part of public health authorities.” More than 300 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported this month, a generally mild disease that spreads through close contact, causing flu-like symptoms and a distinctive rash. Most have been in Europe more than in the Central and West African countries where the virus is endemic. No deaths were reported in the current outbreak. However, global health officials have expressed alarm over the growing outbreak in non-endemic countries. The WHO has said it expects the numbers to rise as surveillance increases. Australian Associated Press
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Some leading experts in infectious diseases are pushing for faster action by global health authorities to contain a growing smallpox outbreak that has spread to at least 20 countries.
They argue that governments and the World Health Organization should not repeat the first mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic that delayed the detection of cases, aiding the spread of the virus.
Although monkeypox is not as transmissible or dangerous as COVID-19, these scientists say, there needs to be clearer guidance on how to isolate a person infected with monkeypox. explicit on how to protect people at risk and improvements in testing and trials. contact tracking.
“If this becomes endemic (in most countries), we will have another nasty disease and many difficult decisions to make,” said Isabelle Eckerle, a professor at the Center for Emerging Viral Diseases in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WHO is considering whether the outbreak should be assessed as a possible public health emergency of international interest (PHEIC), an official told Reuters.
A WHO determination that an outbreak is a global health emergency, as it did with COVID-19 or Ebola, would help speed up research and funding to contain a disease.
“It’s always under consideration, but there’s still no emergency committee (on monkeypox),” said Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s health emergency program, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the agency in Geneva.
However, experts say that the WHO is unlikely to reach this conclusion soon, because the smallpox of the monkey is a known threat that the world has tools to combat.
Discussing whether to create an emergency committee, the body that recommends declaring a PHEIC, is only part of the agency’s routine response, WHO officials said.
Eckerle called on the WHO to encourage countries to implement more coordinated and stringent containment measures even without a declaration of emergency.
He is concerned that talking about the virus being mild, as well as the availability of vaccines and treatments in some countries, “could potentially lead to lazy behavior on the part of public health authorities.”
More than 300 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported this month, a generally mild disease that spreads through close contact, causing flu-like symptoms and a distinctive rash.
Most have been in Europe more than in the Central and West African countries where the virus is endemic. No deaths were reported in the current outbreak.
However, global health officials have expressed alarm over the growing outbreak in non-endemic countries. The WHO has said it expects the numbers to rise as surveillance increases.
Australian Associated Press