Rabat – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that the monkeypox virus “does not currently constitute a global public health concern,” and called for “intense response efforts” to curb the spread of the virus.
Amid an increase in monkeypox cases since early May, WHO noted that the highest numbers have been recorded in Europe and “most cases are among men who have sex with men.”
More than 4,000 monkeypox cases have been reported globally across 47 countries and territories since the start of May, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With the emerging virus increasingly becoming a public health threat, the WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for collective coordination using adequate health measures including surveillance, contact-tracing, isolation and care of patients, and ensuring health tools like vaccines and treatments for populations at risk.
Ghebreyesus further noted that the emergency committee “shared serious concerns about the scale and speed of the current outbreak,” during a June 23 meeting that discussed the multi-country monkeypox outbreak.
While few members of the committee “expressed differing views,” the WHO director-general agreed with the committee’s advice that it doesn’t perceive monkeypox as a public health emergency of international concern.
For the WHO, the global health emergency is reserved for “serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected” events that represent a health risk to more than one country and require an immediate international response.
The organization previously gave the emergency alert for COVID-19, Ebola, Zika, H1N1 flu, and polio.
About 50 countries, where the disease is not endemic this year, have reported more than 3,200 confirmed monkeypox cases and one death to WHO.
Since the beginning of 2022, nearly 1,500 suspected cases and about 70 deaths have been reported in Central Africa, mainly in DR Congo, the Central African Republic, and Cameroon.
Morocco detected its first monkeypox case earlier this month, with the country’s health ministry stressing that the case was imported from abroad.
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