The World Health Organization is studying the possibility of classifying monkeypox as a “global emergency”
The World Health Organization began a meeting of the expert committee on monkeypox Thursday to determine whether the current increase in the number of infections constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
The World Health Organization confirmed to AFP that the meeting had begun and was expected to last several hours.
This emergency committee will be tasked with evaluating epidemiological indicators, while the situation has worsened in recent weeks, with more than 15,300 injuries recorded in 71 countries, according to figures issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"Whatever the committee recommends, WHO will continue to do everything in its power to stop monkeypox and save lives," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference on Wednesday.
At the first meeting on June 23, the majority of experts recommended that Tedros not declare a public health emergency of international concern.
Since the first cases of monkeypox were discovered in early May, infection with this epidemic has begun to spread outside the countries of Central and West Africa, where the virus is endemic.
Hence, it spread all over the world, with Europe as its epicenter.
Monkeypox, discovered in humans in the 1970s, is considered to be less dangerous and contagious than smallpox that was eradicated in 1980.
In most cases, those affected are gay and relatively young and live mainly in cities, according to the World Health Organization.
As of July 18, the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention had recorded 7,896 cases of monkeypox virus.
Spain was the most affected, with 2,835 injuries, followed by Germany (1924), France (912), the Netherlands (656) and Portugal (515), while the majority of cases belong to "groups of gay men aged between 18 and 50".
Outside Africa, "men make up 99% of reported cases" and that 98% of these are "homosexual men, especially those with multiple, new or unknown partners," Dr Rosamund Lewis, the lead expert on monkeypox at the World Health Organization said Wednesday. ".
WHO works closely with civil society and the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transgender and intersex people) to facilitate the dissemination of information about the disease, particularly with the aim of organizing LGBT pride festivals and parades.
The UN health agency is working in parallel with member states and experts to advance research and development on the virus.
"Although we are witnessing a downward trend in some countries, other countries are still facing a rise in the number of infections, and six countries reported their first cases last week," Tedros said.
He added that "some of these countries have much weaker access to diagnostics and vaccines, which makes it difficult to track and stop the spread of the disease," while a large amount of vaccines are not available.
The Danish company "Bavarin Nordic", which is the only laboratory that produces a licensed vaccine against monkeypox, announced on Tuesday that it had received an order for 1.5 million doses, most of which will be delivered in 2023, from an unnamed European country, while the United States requested an additional 2.5 million doses.
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