Monkeypox outbreak still an international health emergency, says WHO

Geneva: Monkeypox continues to meet the International Health Regulations (IHR) criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), said the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday.

“The Emergency Committee acknowledged that some progress has been made in the global response to the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox since the last meeting, including the emerging information on the effectiveness of behavioural interventions and vaccines,” the WHO said in a statement.

This follows the third meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee that was held on Thursday regarding the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox.

The third meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox was convened via videoconference. Eleven of the 15 Members and 6 of the 9 Advisors to the Committee participated in the meeting.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his opening remarks, welcomed the Committee, noting a promising decline in cases globally, although progress in the regions of the Americas and Africa is less certain, where cases are rising in some countries, and underreporting is likely in others.

The WHO Secretariat updated the Committee on the global epidemiological situation as well as on the rapidly evolving knowledge in understanding the clinical manifestation and evolution of the disease.

The Secretariat noted that, since the determination of the PHEIC on July 23, this year, many more countries have promptly responded to the outbreak with a range of public health interventions and cases are declining globally.

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Nonetheless, the picture is mixed and, overall, the risk assessment conducted by the WHO Secretariat concludes that as of 18 October 2022 the public health risk remains moderate globally.

According to WHO, at the regional level, the risk was assessed as high in the WHO region of the Americas, declining from high to moderate in the European region, remaining moderate for the WHO Regions of Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, and South-East Asia, and remaining low in the Western Pacific Region.

So far, more than 70,000 confirmed cases of Monkeypox have been reported in over 100 countries. Most cases have been reported among men.

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