Smallpox is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday, although WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was deeply concerned about the outbreak.
“I am deeply concerned about the monkeypox outbreak, this is clearly an evolving health threat that my colleagues and I in the WHO Secretariat are following very closely,” Tedros said.
Currently, the “global emergency” label only applies to the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing efforts to eradicate polio, and the United Nations agency has stopped applying it to the smallpox outbreak. monkey after the advice of a meeting of international experts.
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According to the WHO, there have been more than 3,200 confirmed cases of smallpox and one death in the last six weeks in 48 countries where it does not usually spread.
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So far this year, there have also been almost 1,500 cases and 70 deaths in Central Africa, where the disease is most common, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Smallpox, a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, has spread widely in men who have sex with men outside the countries where it is endemic.
It has two clades: the West African strain, which is believed to have a mortality rate of around 1% and is the strain that extends to Europe and elsewhere, and the strain of the West African basin. Congo, which has a mortality rate closer to 10%, according to the WHO.
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Vaccines and treatments are available for monkeypox, although they are limited.
The WHO decision is likely to be received with some criticism from global health experts, who said before the meeting that the outbreak met the criteria for being called an emergency.
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However, others noted that the WHO is in a difficult position after COVID-19. His January 2020 statement that the new coronavirus represented a public health emergency was largely ignored by many governments until about six weeks later, when the agency used the word “pandemic” and countries took action. .
(Report by Jennifer Rigby; additional report by Mrinmay Dey; edited by Sandra Maler)