There have been 1,600 confirmed and 1,500 suspected cases of monkeypox and 72 deaths in 39 countries this year


The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene an emergency committee on Thursday next week to assess whether the monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.
That is the highest level of warning issued by the UN agency, which currently applies only to the COVID-19 pandemic and polio.
There have been 1,600 confirmed and 1,500 suspected cases of monkeypox this year and 72 deaths, WHO said, in 39 countries, including those where the virus usually spreads.
Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa but there have been more cases both in those countries and the rest of the world in recent months. The virus causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, and spreads through close contact.
It is thought to be fatal in around 3-6% of cases, according to WHO, although no deaths have yet been reported in the outbreak outside Africa. The majority of deaths this year have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it was time to consider stepping up the response because the virus is behaving unusually, more countries are affected, and there is a need for international co-ordination.
"We don't want to wait until the situation is out of control," said WHO's emergencies director for Africa, Ibrahima Socé Fall.
The committee meeting next week will be made up of global experts, but the WHO Director General makes the ultimate decision on whether the outbreak deserves the label, known as a PHEIC.
Experts have been pushing the WHO for faster action for several weeks, following criticism of the agency's initial response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Alongside COVID and polio, other disease outbreaks have been declared PHEICs, like Ebola in 2014.
A committee can also, however, pull back from raising the alarm. When a WHO emergency committee was set up to consider whether a yellow fever outbreak in West Africa in 2016 deserved the agency's highest threat level, it ultimately decided against it.
A WHO determination that an outbreak constitutes a global health emergency can help accelerate research and funding to contain a disease.
Tedros also said that WHO is working with partners on changing the name of monkeypox and its variants, as well as on a mechanism to help share available vaccines more equitably.
Some countries have begun vaccinating health workers and close contacts of monkeypox patients using smallpox vaccines, a related and more serious virus that was eradicated in 1980.
WHO issued new guidelines on monkeypox vaccination earlier on Tuesday.
SOURCE: REUTERS

Google Discover feed gets major upgrade with social media posts and shorts
- 6 hours ago
US-UK sign major technology partnership during President Trump's visit
- 8 hours ago
Drone from Yemen crashes near hotel in Israeli city of Eilat
- 4 hours ago

ECC approves final Reko Diq agreements
- 5 hours ago
Israeli aggression continues in Gaza as 48 more Palestinians martyred
- 5 hours ago

Tragic electrocution claims lives of father and son in Karachi
- 5 hours ago
Rupee strengthens against dollar in interbank and open markets
- 8 hours ago
Qatar plans ICC case over Israeli airstrike on Doha building
- 4 hours ago

Over 140,000 students register for MDCAT 2025
- 4 hours ago

Flood threat rises in Sindh as water flow increases at Sukkur and Kotri Barrages
- 7 hours ago
50 Sudanese migrants killed as boat capsizes off Lebanon coast
- 8 hours ago
Trump says he disagrees with UK on recognising Palestinian state
- 6 hours ago