WHO to hold monkeypox emergency meeting on July 21

WHO to hold monkeypox emergency meeting on July 21
July 14, 2022, 6:02 pm

Monkeypox doesn’t spread as easily as common illnesses like COVID-19 or the flu. People can only catch monkeypox if they have close contact with someone who is infected - Center for Disease Control and Prevention

The World Health Organization said Thursday (July 14) it would reconvene its expert monkeypox committee on July 21 to decide whether the outbreak constitutes a global health emergency.

The UN health agency said in a statement: "The emergency committee will provide its views to the WHO director general on whether the event constitutes a PHEIC.”

"If so, it will propose temporary recommendations on how to better prevent and reduce the spread of the disease and manage the global public health response."

A statement will be issued in the days following the meeting, the Anews reported, citing the AFP.

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (AFP)

On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) -- the highest alarm that the WHO can sound.

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But a majority advised the WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the situation, at that point, had not met that threshold.

Most monkeypox infections so far have been observed in men who have sex with men, of young age and chiefly in urban areas, according to the WHO.

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