Monkeypox declared emergency in hope of prompting action
The expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that qualifies as a global emergency, the World Health Organisation chief has said, a declaration that could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.
A global emergency is WHO’s highest level of alert but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal.
Similar declarations were made for the Zika virus in 2016 in Latin America and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio, in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision on calling monkeypox a global emergency despite a lack of consensus among experts on the UN health agency’s emergency committee, saying he acted as “a tiebreaker”.
It was the first time a UN health agency chief has unilaterally made such a decision without an expert recommendation.
WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr Michael Ryan, said the directorgeneral decided to declare monkeypox a global emergency to ensure the world takes the current outbreaks seriously.
According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries since about May. To date, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where a more dangerous version of the virus is spreading.
In Africa, monkeypox mainly spreads to people by infected wild animals like rodents in limited outbreaks that typically have not crossed borders.
In Europe, North America and elsewhere, however, monkeypox is spreading among people with no links to animals or recent travel to Africa.
Some experts had questioned whether such a declaration would help, arguing the disease isn’t severe enough to warrant the attention and that rich countries battling monkeypox already have the funds to do so.
Most people recover without needing medical attention, although the lesions may be painful. Head said WHO’s emergency declaration could help donors like the World Bank make funds available to stop the outbreaks both in the West and in Africa.
In the US, some experts have speculated whether monkeypox might be on the verge of becoming an entrenched sexually transmitted disease in the country, like gonorrhea, herpes and HIV.
“The bottom line is we’ve seen a shift in the epidemiology of monkeypox where there’s now widespread, unexpected transmission,” said Dr Albert Ko, a professor of public health and epidemiology at Yale University.
Ko called for testing to be immediately scaled up, saying that like the early days of Covid-19, there are significant gaps in surveillance.
Tedros called for the world to “act together in solidarity” regarding the distribution of treatments, test and vaccines.
The UN agency has previously said it’s working to create a vaccinesharing mechanism for the mostaffected countries.