The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Saturday, July 23, 2022, described monkeypox as a global outbreak, saying it needs emergency concerns from multiple countries.
Maintaining that monkeypox is now a global emergency, which BizWatch Nigeria understands as the highest level of alert, WHO stated that the situation surrounding the disease has been assessed as high. Hence, counties around the world should prioritise their efforts in combating it.
According to Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of WHO, if the infectious disease is not taken seriously on a global scale, it is likely to further spread and cause more damage.
“So, in short, 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,” the WHO chief said, adding that “for all of these reasons, I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”
Ghebreyesus said he has, therefore, made a set of recommendations for four groups of countries — those yet to report a case; those with recently imported cases of monkeypox; those with the transmission of monkeypox from animals to humans; and those with manufacturing capacity for vaccines and therapeutics.
“Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment, this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.
“That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups.
“It’s therefore essential that all countries work closely with communities of men who have sex with men, to design and deliver effective information and services, and to adopt measures that protect both the health, human rights, and dignity of affected communities,” he explained.
It is, however, pertinent to note that at the time of filing this report, there have been more than 16,000 reported cases of monkeypox from 75 countries.
