WHO declares monkeypox an international public health emergency
The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, its highest level of alert, as cases continue to climb.
The World Health Organization on Saturday declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, a designation reserved for the most serious global disease outbreaks.
That puts monkeypox on the same list as six other outbreaks with the same WHO label since 2007: Covid-19, Zika, H1N1 flu, polio and Ebola, which has been designated an emergency twice.
The WHO decision came after an emergency committee convened on Thursday to assess the spread of monkeypox and determine the severity of its threat.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts serving on the U.N. health agency’s emergency committee. It was the first time the chief of the U.N. health agency has taken such an action.
“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations,” Tedros said.
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