Monkeypox experts debated Thursday whether the World Health Organization should classify the outbreak as a global health emergency — the highest alert it can raise.
A second meeting of the WHO’s Emergency Committee on the virus was held to examine the worsening situation, with nearly 15,400 cases reported from 71 countries, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Outside West and Central African countries, where the disease has long been endemic, an increase in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May.
On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency panel of experts to decide whether monkeypox constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) – the UN health agency’s highest alert level.
But a majority told WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the situation had not reached the threshold at that point.
The second meeting was convened as the number of cases continued to rise.
“I need your advice in assessing the immediate and medium-term public health implications,” Tedros said at the start of the meeting.
If the committee tells Tedros that the outbreak constitutes a PHEIC, it will propose interim recommendations on how to better prevent and reduce the spread of the disease and manage the global public health response.
However, there is no timeline as to when the result will be released.
– information battle –
Ninety-eight percent of reported cases “involve men who have sex with men (MSM) — and especially those who have recently had multiple anonymous or new partners,” Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s chief technical officer on monkeypox, said at a news conference on Wednesday .
According to the WHO, they are usually young and are mainly found in urban areas.
Tedros said Thursday that this poses a challenge because in some countries “the affected communities face life-threatening discrimination”.
“There is a very real concern that men who have sex with men could be stigmatized or blamed for the outbreak, making it much more difficult to track and stop the outbreak,” he told the meeting.
Tedros said the committee’s first meeting helped describe the dynamics of the outbreak, but he remains concerned about the number of cases.
Despite an apparent downward trend in some countries, six nations reported their first cases last week.
“As the outbreak evolves, it’s important to assess the effectiveness of public health interventions in different settings to better understand what’s working and what’s not,” he said.
Tedros also said information from endemic countries in Africa is “very sparse,” making it difficult to characterize the situation in the region and design interventions.
Monkeypox is a viral infection similar to smallpox that was first discovered in humans in 1970. They are less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.
– ‘Scary and exhausting’ –
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said that as of Monday, 7,896 confirmed cases had been reported from 27 countries in the European Economic Area.
Spain (2,835), Germany (1,924), France (912), the Netherlands (656) and Portugal (515) were most affected.
“Certain sexual practices have very likely facilitated, and may further facilitate, transmission of monkeypox between MSM groups,” it said.
Danish company Bavarian Nordic is the only laboratory producing a licensed monkeypox vaccine, and vaccines are currently in short supply.
Loyce Pace, assistant secretary for global affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said it was “very difficult” for the world to manage monkeypox on top of Covid-19 and other health crises.
“I know it can be scary… and frankly exhausting,” she told reporters at the US Mission in Geneva.
“However, we know much more about this disease, we have been able to stop outbreaks beforehand and, importantly, we have medical countermeasures and other tools at our disposal.”
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