WHO Issues Highest Alert Level For ‘Rapidly Growing’ Monkeypox Outbreak

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WHO Chief Overrules Panel to Declare Monkeypox A Global Emergency

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The World Health Organization has declared that the scheduled monkeypox outbreak is now a ‘global health emergency‘.

The classification is the highest alert that the UN health agency can issue and was decided on at the end of the second meeting of the WHO’s emergency monkeypox committee.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus personally intervened to overrule the divided panel. Nine members of the committee were against declaring the monkeypox outbreak an emergency, while only six were in favor.

Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus………sound familiar?

Health officials are already recommending people at highest risk of exposure to the virus, including some gay and bisexual men and some healthcare workers, should be offered a vaccination.

BBC reports: More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.

There are only two other such health emergencies at present – the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.

Dr Tedros said the emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency.

However, he said the outbreak had spread around the world rapidly and he had decided that it was indeed of international concern.

Too little was understood about the new modes of transmission which had allowed it to spread, said Dr Tedros.

“The WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region, where we assess the risk as high,” he added.

There was also a clear risk of further international spread, although the risk of interference with international traffic remained low for the moment, he said.

Dr Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.

The WHO is also issuing recommendations which it hopes will spur countries to take action to stop transmission of the virus and protect those most at risk.

“This is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups,” Dr Tedros said.

He said cases were currently concentrated among men who had sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners, and that countries needed to adopt measures that protected their health, human rights and dignity.

“Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus,” he said.

5 Comments

  1. They’ve made billiohs from stigmata and discrimination. Over centuries .Well rehearsed at how to utilise high for their power and profit .Monkey pox gas been around in Nigeria for years and years and years and just now ,conveniently for guess WHO, decides to become one if the globe trotting jet set.

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