As the World Health Organisation’s emergency committee convenes Thursday to consider for the second time within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists say the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.

African officials say they are already treating the continent’s epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America, etc.  makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus cant be stopped. There are nearly 15,000 monkeypox cases worldwide.