The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of monkeypox to be a public health emergency of international concern.
“The global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a briefing in Geneva Saturday.
At the virtual press conference, Ghebreyesus also said that the outbreak has spread around the world “rapidly,” including those that had not seen it before, and that officials understand “too little” about the disease. The risk of monkeypox is moderate globally except in the European region, where the risk is assessed as high, he said.
Ghebreyesus also outlined a set of recommendations for countries that have not yet reported a case of monkeypox or have not reported a case for 21 days; those with recently imported cases of monkeypox that are experiencing human-to-human transmission; those with transmission of monkeypox between animals and humans; and those with manufacturing capacities for diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics.
