According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the quickly expanding monkeypox outbreak is a global health emergency, the organization’s highest degree of alert.
The WHO designation of a “public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)” is intended to launch a coordinated global response and may make financing available for cooperation on the sharing of vaccinations and medications.
Tedros told reporters that the expert committee’s members, who met on Thursday to discuss the prospective suggestion, were divided on the issue, with nine voting against and six in favor of the declaration. Tedros decided to break the tie, he said.
“Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners,” Tedros told a media briefing in Geneva.
More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported so far this year in more than 75 different countries, with five fatalities occurring in Africa.
Outside of Africa, where it is prevalent, the viral disease has been mostly spreading in recent outbreaks among men who have intercourse with other men.
