WHO does not consider monkeypox outbreak a global emergency

The monkeypox outbreak is an emergency and is not currently an international emergency (PHEIC). This was reported on Saturday, June 25, at the World Health Organization (WHO) following a meeting of the emergency committee.

It is noted that the meeting of the committee was held the day before, on Friday.

“While several [committee] members expressed differing views, the committee decided by consensus to recommend to the Director-General of WHO that, at this stage, this outbreak should not be characterized as a public health emergency of international concern,” the statement said.

Due to the emergency nature of the outbreak, “controlling the further spread of the outbreak requires an intensive response effort,” the organizations added.

Earlier, on June 24, the Financial Times, citing research, reported that the monkeypox virus may show the first mutations regarding the rate of transmission of the disease from person to person, earlier than scientists expected. The number of mutations in the monkeypox virus, which is spreading this year, was unexpectedly high, the scientists explained.

At the same time, as Andrei Lomonosov, an expert on the HealthNet market of the National Technology Initiative (NTI), told Izvestia earlier on the same day, only specialized state or international agencies working in the field of healthcare, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) or departments individual countries.

At the same time, the statements of the public organization World Health Network that the situation with the spread of infection is serious are correct.

The day before, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a pandemic. The organization emphasized that the outbreak “must be eliminated by taking immediate action wherever the virus is transmitted.” They clarified that at the moment 3417 confirmed cases of the disease have been identified in 58 countries, while the rate of infection is increasing every week.

At the same time, Natalya Pshenichnaya, deputy director for clinical and analytical work of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, said that there would be no lockdown or transition to remote work in Russia due to monkeypox.

Europe is still the epicenter of the monkeypox outbreak. As of June 15, experts have detected more than 1.5 thousand cases of infection on its territory – 85% of all recorded to date in the world.

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