The World Health Organization said on Saturday that the spread of the monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that is now being called a global emergency, a declaration that could spur more investment in treatment of the once rare disease and worsen the fight for scarce vaccines.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the statement despite a lack of consensus among members of the WHO’s emergency committee. It was the first time the head of the United Nations health agency has taken such action.
“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and that meets the criteria of international health regulations,” Tedros said.
“I know that this has not been an easy or simple process and that there are divergent opinions among the members” of the commission.
Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and western Africa for decades, it was not known to trigger large outbreaks beyond the continent or spread widely among people until May, when authorities they detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
Declaring a global emergency means that the monkeypox outbreak is an “extraordinary event” that could spread to more countries and requires a coordinated global response.
WHO has previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016, and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.
More to come