Skip to main content

Monkeypox: WHO declares highest alert over outbreak


The monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global health 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.


There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.


There are only two other such health emergencies at present - the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.

Dr Tedros said the emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency.


However, he 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.


There was also a clear risk of further international spread, although the risk of interference with international traffic remained low for the moment, he said.


Dr Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.


The WHO is also issuing recommendations which it hopes will spur countries to take action to stop transmission of the virus and protect those most at risk.


"This is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups," Dr Tedros said.


He 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.


"Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus," he said.


Monkeypox was first discovered in central Africa in the 1950s.


In the UK, there have so far been more than 2,000 confirmed cases.


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. Infections are usually mild.

Declaring a global emergency is a significant act.


It is a rallying cry for countries to take the virus seriously, it raises awareness around the world and it can help poorer countries get the tools they need to control monkeypox.


In principle, we have the tools to stop the virus. Monkeypox does not spread as easily as Covid and we already have a vaccine (developed for smallpox) that offers good protection.


And while anyone can catch monkeypox, the outbreak is overwhelmingly concentrated in gay and bisexual men, as well as other men who have sex with men.


This can make the outbreak easier to tackle, as efforts, including vaccines and public health information, can be targeted at those most at risk.


But remember, there are still countries where same-sex relationships are illegal - and stigma and persecution can act as a barrier to help.


Whether we can stop monkeypox can be stopped is as much a societal and cultural challenge as it is about the virus.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Can We Make A Vaccine Against Smoking?

  This segment sounds good but we need to be careful here or we end up where we started in 2021 vaccines becoming political. 

Texas governor bans vaccine passports from being required in state ABC News

  Thats Right States like Texas and Florida got the Vaccine Passport Conspiracy from Del Bigtree.  https://abc7.com/politics/texas-governor-bans-vaccine-passport-requirement-in-state/10491161/ AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Tuesday morning prohibiting state agencies or political subdivisions in Texas from creating a "vaccine passport" requirement. Conversation has grown around  vaccine passports recently as an option that can be used for travel or even eating out . They are typically described as an app with a code that verifies if someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19. They're already in use in Israel, and in development in parts of Europe. But Abbott shut that down as an option in the Lone Star State with Executive Order No. GA - 35 also prohibiting "organizations receiving public funds from requiring consumers to provide documentation of vaccine status in order to receive any service or enter any place....

Anti-Vax Conspiracies strike back in the USA July 2021 Original Article

 Thumbnail credit by Jeff Holiday Production In the past few weeks the anti-vax lobby has ratcheted up the ante on their lobbying efforts. The event that kicked off this new wave of anti-vax scares was the "Knock on the Door rants" according to the Washington Post on a July 9th article they cited  rants by Marjorie Taylor Greene and Laurent Boebert in a political rally that sparked the scare. "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) got the ball rolling Tuesday by comparing the effort to “ medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations .” Not to be outdone, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) took to Twitter the next day to offer her own Nazi comparison, labeling the door-knockers “ needle Nazis .” If anyone should know the folly of such metaphors, it would seem to be Greene, who just three weeks prior conceded in an apology after another wayward Nazi/coronavirus comment that “ there is no comparison to the Holocaust .” And it’s worth emphasizing that there is...