The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency or ‘public health emergency of international concern’, the World Health Organization’s highest level of alert, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday.
A PHEIC, according to the WHO, constitutes “…an extraordinary event, which constitutes a public health risk to other States through the international spread, and which potentially requires a coordinated international response.”
On January 30, 2020, the organisation had categorised COVID-19 as a PHEIC, when about 7,500 cases of novel coronavirus were reported. On March 11 that year, the agency elevated it to ‘pandemic’, according to the Hindu.
An expert committee met on Thursday to discuss the potential recommendation. They were equally split on the decision two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Reuters earlier, but the final decision falls to the U.N. agency’s director-general.
During a media briefing in Geneva, Tedros confirmed that the committee had failed to reach a consensus, with nine members voting against and six voting in favour of the declaration. Hence, he decided to declare it a global emergency.
🚨 BREAKING:
"For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global #monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern."-@DrTedros pic.twitter.com/qvmYX1ZBAL— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 23, 2022
“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. For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” Tedros said.
More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in more than 75 countries, and five deaths have been documented in Africa.
