UN health agency declares monkeypox a global emergency

The World Health Organisation said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an extraordinary situation that now qualifies as a global emergency a declaration Saturday that could spur further investment in treating the oncerare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccinesWHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among members of WHOs emergency committee It was the first time the chief of the UN health agency has taken such an actionIn 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 Tedros saidI know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views among the members of the committee he addedAlso Read Kerala reports third case of Monkeypox in IndiaAlthough monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades it was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe North America and elsewhereDeclaring a global emergency means the monkeypox outbreak is an extraordinary event that could spill over into more countries and requires a coordinated global responseWHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the Covid19 pandemic the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the ongoing effort to eradicate polioThe emergency declaration mostly serves as a plea to draw more global resources and attention to an outbreak Past announcements had mixed impact given that the UN health agency is largely powerless in getting countries to actLast month WHOs expert committee said the worldwide monkeypox outbreak did not yet amount to an international emergency but the panel convened this week to reevaluate the situationAccording to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than 16000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries since about MayTo date monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa where a more dangerous version of the virus is spreading mainly in Nigeria and CongoIn Africa monkeypox mainly spreads to people from infected wild animals like rodents in limited outbreaks that typically have not crossed bordersIn Europe North America and elsewhere however monkeypox is spreading among people with no links to animals or recent travel to AfricaWHOs top monkeypox expert Dr Rosamund Lewis said this week that 9937 of all the monkeypox cases beyond Africa were in men and that of those 9837 involved men who have sex with men Experts suspect the monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were spread via sex at two raves in Belgium and SpainMichael Head a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University said it was surprising WHO hadnt already declared monkeypox a global emergency explaining that the conditions were arguably met weeks agoSome experts have questioned whether such a declaration would help arguing the disease isnt severe enough to warrant the attention and that rich countries battling monkeypox already have the funds to do so most people recover without needing medical attention although the lesions may be painfulI think it would be better to be proactive and overreact to the problem instead of waiting to react when its too late Head saidHe added that WHOs emergency declaration could help donors like the World Bank make funds available to stop the outbreaks both in the West and in Africa where animals are the likely natural reservoir of monkeypoxIn the US some experts have speculated whether monkeypox might be on the verge of becoming an entrenched sexually transmitted disease in the country like gonorrhea herpes and HIVThe bottom line is weve seen a shift in the epidemiology of monkeypox where theres now widespread unexpected transmission said Dr Albert Ko a professor of public health and epidemiology at Yale UniversityThere are some genetic mutations in the virus that suggest why that may be happening but we do need a globallycoordinated response to get it under control he saidKo called for testing to be immediately scaled up rapidly saying that similar to the early days of Covid19 that there were significant gaps in surveillanceThe cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg he said The window has probably closed for us to quickly stop the outbreaks in Europe and the US but its not too late to stop monkeypox from causing huge damage to poorer countries without the resources to handle itIn the US some experts have speculated that monkeypox might become entrenched there as the newest sexually transmitted disease with officials estimating that 15 million men are at high risk of being infectedDr Placide Mbala a virologist who directs the global health department at Congos Institute of National Biomedical Research said he hoped any global efforts to stop monkeypox would be equitableAlthough countries including Britain Canada Germany and the US have ordered millions of vaccine doses none have gone to AfricaThe solution needs to be global Mbala said adding that any vaccines sent to Africa would be used to target those at highest risk like hunters in rural areasVaccination in the West might help stop the outbreak there but there will still be cases in Africa he saidUnless the problem is solved here the risk to the rest of the world will remainThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever