World Health Organization Reassess Monkeypox Outbreak as Public Health Emergency

World Health Organization (WHO) Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he called the emergency committee back together to discuss the multi-nation monkeypox outbreak because he needed their help to determine the immediate and mid-term public health effects of how the situation developed. He said that he was concerned about the growing number of cases that they have received.

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Woman inside laboratory

World Health Organization Considers Public Health Emergency Due to Monkeypox

The reconsideration matters as the outbreak posed a threat to the public's health, as reported by the World Health Organization in June. At the time, the organization chose not to formally declare an emergency. According to the United Nations, the number of cases worldwide has already topped 14,000, with six countries reporting their first cases last week.

"As the outbreak expands, it's vital to examine the effectiveness of public health measures in diverse settings, to better understand what works and what doesn't," Ghebreyesus said in the meeting.

In his statement, the director said that he is well aware that any option he makes involves the assessment of multiple factors regarding the goal of defending public health.

The transmission pattern represents both an opportunity to implement targeted public health interventions and a challenge because, in some countries, the communities affected face life-threatening discrimination.

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The Difference Between Monkeypox in Africa and Western Countries

According to Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom and a former WHO advisor on infectious diseases, what's happening in Africa is almost wholly distinct from the outbreak in Europe and North America. Hunter said that in the very busy gay sexual networks, there are men who may not always be aware of the identity of the person they are having sex with.

This most likely isn't the case in Africa, where the limited information suggests that monkeypox is predominantly spread to humans by infected animals. African experts admit they might overlook instances of homosexual and bisexual men due to the absence of surveillance and stigmatization of LGBTQ people. However, to keep the disease under control, authorities have relied on traditional strategies like isolation and education.

He noted that some of those men might be married to women or have families unaware of their sexual activity, which makes contact tracing extremely difficult, and even things like asking people to come forward for testing.

There are also observable variations between patients in Africa and the West, according to Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who oversees the global health division at the Institute of National Biomedical Research of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He said that they detect obvious lesions in Congo quite rapidly, after three to four days, which would make someone with so many visible lesions unlikely to go out in public, limiting further transmission. On the other hand, medical professionals have seen some infected individuals with just one or two lesions, frequently in the genitalia, in countries like Britain and the U.S. Mbala added that if someone is alone with that individual in a taxi or a pub, the lesions would be unnoticeable. Therefore, those in the West who don't have these obvious lesions could be silently spreading the illness.

According to him, diverse strategies in various countries will probably be required to end the global outbreak, making it difficult to implement a unified global response strategy, as was the case with Ebola and COVID-19.