The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak can be stopped, an official from the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. “We do at this moment still believe that this outbreak of monkeypox can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups but time is going by and we all need to pull together to make that happen,” Rosamund Lewis, WHO Technical Lead on Monkeypox, told reporters. 

The outbreak represents a global health emergency, the WHO’s highest level of alert, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday. The WHO label - a “public health emergency of international concern” - is designed to trigger a coordinated international response and could unlock funding to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments. “WHO is still working towards determining a global coordination mechanism. At the moment, it’s something that’s still in discussion,” Lewis said.