WEDNESDAY, June 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) – An emergency committee of independent experts will meet next week to determine whether the growing monkeypox outbreak that has spread to dozens of countries should declare an international health emergency, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday. .
This is the highest level of alert for viral outbreaks, and doing so would mean that the WHO considers the normally rare disease a continuing threat to nations around the world, the Associated Press reported.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he decided to convene the emergency committee because of the “unusual” spread of monkeypox in countries far beyond parts of Africa where it is endemic. “We believe it also needs a coordinated response due to geographical spread,” he told reporters, according to the AP.
The number of cases is increasing every day and there is “a lot of lack of knowledge about the dynamics of transmission,” said Ibrahima Soce Fall, MD, WHO’s director of emergencies for Africa, AP reported. “With the advice of the emergency committee, we can be in a better position to control the situation. But that doesn’t mean we’re going directly to a public health emergency of international interest. We don’t want to wait until the situation is out. control to start calling the emergency committee “.
The United Nations health agency recommends the “sensible” use of vaccines instead of mass vaccination, and said the main measures to control the outbreak include surveillance, case monitoring and isolation of patients. , reported the AP. More than 1,600 cases and nearly 1,500 suspected cases have been reported this year in 39 countries, including seven where monkeypox has occurred for years, Tedros said.
72 deaths have been reported, but to newly affected countries such as Britain, Canada, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United States, the AP reported.
Associated press article