The World Health Organization will hold a second emergency meeting next week to decide whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency.
“The emergency committee for monkeypox will reconvene next week and look at trends, how effective the countermeasures are, and make recommendations” to countries and communities confronting the outbreak, the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a virtual press conference. Over 6 000 cases of monkeypox and three deaths have been reported from across 60 countries since the beginning of the year. More cases can be expected as surveillance expands.
Globally, and in the Region the risk is assessed as moderate. WHO convened a meeting of the Emergency Committee on 23 June 2022 to seek expert advice if the ongoing outbreak was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The committee recommended intense response to curtail the spread of the ongoing outbreak, in view of low population immunity against pox virus infection and risk of further sustained transmission into the wider population. The next meeting of the Emergency Committee has been convened on 21 July.
About 9,200 cases of monkeypox have been reported across 63 countries so far this year, up from just over 6,000 as of July 4, the agency said. Three deaths from the virus have been reported this year.
The first case of monkeypox in WHO South-East Asia Region has been reported from India, in a 35-year-old man who arrived from the Middle East earlier this week.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ministry of health on Thursday announced the detection of the first case of monkeypox in the Kingdom, making it the second Gulf country to report the disease after the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Most people during this most recent outbreak are recovering from monkeypox in two to four weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the virus causes a painful rash that can spread all over the body. People who have caught the virus said the rash, which looks like pimples or blisters, can be very painful.