The World Health Organization’s Chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared that the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an extraordinary situation that now qualifies as a global emergency, a declaration that could spur additional investment in treating the once-rare disease and exacerbate the scramble for scarce vaccines.
Despite a lack of agreement among experts on the U-N health agency’s emergency committee, W-H-O Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus decided to issue the declaration. It was the first time the head of the United Nations health agency took such a step.
“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,” Tedros said.
“I know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views among the members” of the committee, he added.
“A global emergency is the highest level of alert issued by W-H-O, but it does not necessarily imply that a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal. Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergency chief, stated that the director-general made the decision to include monkeypox in that category to ensure that the global community takes the current outbreaks seriously.
“Although monkeypox has been present in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to cause large outbreaks or spread widely among people until May, when authorities discovered dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America, and elsewhere.
“Declaring a global emergency means that the monkeypox outbreak is a “extraordinary event” that could spread to other countries and necessitates a global response. W-H-O has previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016, and the ongoing polio eradication effort.
“The declaration of an emergency primarily serves as a request for more global resources and attention to an outbreak. Previous announcements had mixed results, given that the United Nations health agency is largely powerless to compel countries to act.
” The W-H-O’s expert committee said last month that the global monkeypox outbreak did not yet constitute an international emergency, but the panel reconvened this week to reevaluate the situation.” He stated.
Since May, more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To date, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where a more dangerous strain of the virus is spreading, primarily in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In Africa, monkeypox is primarily transmitted to humans by infected wild animals such as rodents in small outbreaks that rarely cross borders. However, monkeypox is spreading among people in Europe, North America, and elsewhere, with no links to animals or recent travel to Africa.
Dr. Rosamund Lewis, W-H-O’s top monkeypox expert, stated this week that 99 percent of all monkeypox cases outside of Africa were in men, and that 98 percent of those cases involved men had sex with men. Experts suspect the monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were spread through sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.
“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.” Tedros said.
Emergencies chief, Ryan explained what preceded the Director-General’s decision:
”(Tedros) found that the committee did not reach a consensus, despite having a very open, very useful, very considered debate on the issues, and that since he’s not going against the committee, what he’s recognizing is that there are deep complexities in this issue,” Ryan said.
“There are uncertainties on all sides. And he’s reflecting that uncertainty and his determination of the event to be a global emergency.
Prior to Saturday’s announcement, Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said it was surprising W-H-O hadn’t already declared monkeypox a global emergency, pointing out that the conditions had been met two week ago.
Some experts questioned whether such a declaration would be helpful, arguing that the disease isn’t severe enough to warrant the attention and that rich countries already have the funds to combat monkeypox; most people recover without needing medical attention, though the lesions may be painful.