Monkeypox: WHO declared emergency!
Vita gazette – The monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global salute emergency by the World Health Organization.
The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and follows a worldwide upsurge in cases. It came at the end of the second meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee on the virus.More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Dr Tedros said the outbreak had spread around the world rapidly and he had decided that it was indeed of international concern.Too little was understood about the new modes of transmission which had allowed it to spread, said Dr Tedros.”The WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region, where we assess the risk as high,” he added.
Dr Tedros said cases were currently concentrated among men who had sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners, and that countries needed to adopt measures that protected their health, human rights and dignity. Health officials are already recommending people at highest risk of exposure to monkeypox – including some gay and bisexual men, as well as some healthcare workers – should be offered a vaccine. Initial symptoms typically include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery, chickenpox-like rash or lesions – often on the mouth or genitals in the recent cases.
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