The decision was announced on Saturday morning after the WHO convened a second emergency committee on the matter on Thursday.
“I have decided that the global outbreak of monkeypox is a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday morning.
Tedros said while the committee was unable to reach a consensus, he reached the decision after considering five factors needed to decide whether an outbreak is a public health emergency. international interest or not.
He added that while he declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, “Right now, this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men. gender, especially those with multiple sexual partners, which means this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups.”
WHO initially stopped declaring the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern after its first emergency committee meeting on June 23. At the time, Tedros said know that the emergency committee has advised that at this time, “this event does not constitute Public Health. Emergency of International Concern” but acknowledges the “developing health threat” that WHO will very closely monitored.
WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, as “an unusual event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States due to the spread of disease”. international” and “likely to require a coordinated international response.”
The organization’s monkeypox emergency committee met for the first time in late June, when its members reported serious concerns about the size and speed of the virus outbreak but said: that it is not a PHEIC. Tedros has reconvened the committee to provide the latest information, he said.
The PHEIC designation comes from the International Health Regulations created in 2005 and it represents an international agreement to help prevent and respond to potentially widespread public health risks worldwide. bridge.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the regulations as “a legally binding agreement of 196 countries to build capacity to detect and report public health emergencies.” potential worldwide. The IHR requires all countries to have the ability to detect, assess, report, and respond to public health events.”
There are two ongoing public health emergencies: polio, which began in 2014, and Covid-19, which began in 2020.
Four other PHEICs have been published since the regulations were introduced: H1N1 flu from 2009 to 2010; Ebola from 2014 to 2016 and from 2019 to 2020; and Zika virus in 2016.
Currently, the United States is reporting more than 2,800 probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox in 44 states, DC and Puerto Rico, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Globally, there are more than 16,500 cases reported in 74 countries.
Monkeypox is a less severe cousin of the now eradicated smallpox virus. It is endemic to parts of West and Central Africa and usually infects rodents or small mammals.
The monkeypox virus can be spread through contact with bodily fluids, sores, or items such as clothing and bedding that are contaminated with the virus. It can also spread from person to person through respiratory droplets, often in close quarters, according to the CDC.
Anyone who comes into contact with a person with a monkeypox-like rash, or who has contact with a person with probable or confirmed smallpox, is at high risk of becoming infected. A large number of cases this year have been in men who have sex with men, and public health officials are focusing prevention efforts on this group.
