Fri 22 July 2022:
On Thursday (July 21), experts discussed whether the World Health Organization (WHO) should declare the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency, the highest level of alert.
Monkeypox cases are rapidly increasing, with nearly 15,400 cases reported in at least 71 countries. A second meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee on the monkeypox virus was held amid the worsening situation.
The WHO determines whether a disease is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by taking into account a variety of factors (PHEIC). The highest level of alert from the UN health agency is PHEIC.
Importantly, during the emergency meeting, a majority of experts advised the WHO’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the current situation had not met the threshold.
Tedros told the start of the meeting: “I need your advice in assessing the immediate and mid-term public health implications.” The meeting lasted more than six hours.
According to the largest study to date, 95% of cases were transmitted through sexual activity, according to a study of 528 people from 16 countries published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Overall, 98 percent of those infected were gay or bisexual men, with roughly a third having visited sex-on-site venues such as sex parties or saunas in the previous month.
Tedros said Thursday that this posed a challenge, as in some countries, “the communities affected face life-threatening discrimination”.
“There is a very real concern that men who have sex with men could be stigmatised or blamed for the outbreak, making the outbreak much harder to track, and to stop,” he told the meeting.
Tedros said the first committee gathering helped delineate the dynamics of the outbreak, but he remained concerned about the number of cases.
Despite an apparent declining trend in some countries, six nations reported their first cases last week.
“As the outbreak develops, it’s important to assess the effectiveness of public health interventions in different settings, to better understand what works, and what doesn’t,” he said.
Tedros also said information coming from endemic countries in Africa was “very scant”, making it hard to characterise the situation in the region and design interventions.
Monkeypox is a viral infection that is more common in West and Central Africa. It is an uncommon disease as most cases occur in west and central Africa. Occasionally it spreads elsewhere.
For the unversed, Monkeypox is related to smallpox, which killed millions around the world every year before it was eradicated in 1980.
But monkeypox is much less severe, with a fatality ratio of three to six per cent. Most people recover within three to four weeks. The initial symptoms include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a chickenpox-like rash.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
