The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday (23rd July 2022) declared the international Monkeypox outbreak a global emergency — a decision that underscores concerns about rapidly spreading infections. Monkeypox has spread across the world at an unprecedented rate in the last two (2) months.
The decision to label the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the highest level of alert the WHO can issue, is expected to marshal new funding and to pressure Governments into action. More than 16,500 cases have been reported in seventy-five (75) countries. In its announcement on Saturday, WHO representatives said it was encouraging countries with large vaccine stockpiles to share and donate vaccines to other countries who do not currently have access to vaccines. “In short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Saturday. The emergency declaration came after a second meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, which declined to take the step a month ago. The committee remained divided on whether the outbreak constituted an emergency, Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, but he took the unusual step of declaring an emergency anyway. Some experts and public health advocates criticized the decision not to issue the highest alert earlier, saying a declaration would have improved global co-ordination to contain the virus. The WHO has faced criticism for being both too slow and too fast to declare public health emergencies in the past, and for favoring political over technical criteria in making these assessments. Prior to the emergency declaration, global health experts expressed hope that this time, WHO would get their timing just right. Spain leads the world in confirmed cases with more than 3,100 infections, according to tracking by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The United States has the second-highest tally at nearly 2,900, with Germany and the United Kingdom each reporting more than 2,200 infections. Health authorities on Friday (22nd July 2022) reported the first two (2) U.S. cases of Monkeypox in children. Vaccines do exist to prevent the virus, and while many countries have a quantity of these vaccines on hand as part of their national stockpiles, demand in the U.S. has greatly outpaced supply, and the global supply of vaccines is relatively small. Countries have been scrambling to order more vaccines, and while the producer of the most popular Monkeypox vaccine has not disclosed which countries have put down orders, the nations that have announced vaccine purchases have generally been higher-income ones, like Germany, Britain, and Canada. This is a developing story - refresh this page for updates. [Source: The Washington Post] We are a small operation. If you've found our articles to be informative, please consider supporting us via PayPal or buying us a coffee. Your contribution is incredibly appreciated and goes a long way. Simply sharing our articles also helps us. Sign up for our free WhatsApp Alerts to be notified as soon as we post breaking news. NEW! Check out our Merchandise Store for high-quality t-shirts, hats and more!
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