Monkeypox outbreak still an international health emergency: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Tuesday that monkeypox continues to fulfil the International Health Regulations (IHR) requirements for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

“The Emergency Committee recognised that some progress has been achieved in the global response to the multi-country monkeypox epidemic since the last meeting,” the WHO said in a statement. This comes as the IHR Emergency Committee had its third meeting on Thursday to discuss the multi-country monkeypox epidemic.

The third videoconference meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on the multi-country monkeypox epidemic was held.

The meeting was attended by eleven of the Committee’s fifteen members and six of its nine advisors.
In his opening remarks, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the Committee, noting an encouraging drop in cases globally, albeit progress in the Americas and Africa is less certain, with cases growing in certain countries and underreporting expected in others.

The WHO Secretariat provided the Committee with an update on the worldwide epidemiological picture, as well as fast increasing expertise in comprehending the clinical presentation and progression of the illness.

The Secretariat stated that, since the PHEIC was determined on July 23, this year, many additional nations have responded quickly to the epidemic with a variety of public health actions, and cases are reducing internationally.

Nonetheless, the picture is mixed, and the WHO Secretariat’s risk assessment indicates that the global public health risk remains moderate as of 18 October 2022.

According to WHO, the risk was rated as high in the WHO region of the Americas, moderate in the European region, moderate in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and South-East Asia, and low in the Western Pacific Region.

Over 70,000 confirmed cases of Monkeypox have been recorded in over 100 countries so far. The majority of instances have been documented in men.