Monkeypox: World Health Organization may declare monkeypox as a 'global health emergency, WHO will call an emergency meeting regarding the virus outbreak

Monkeypox is likely to be declared an emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has so far affected 2,821 people in both endemic and non-endemic countries. Monkeypox has spread to 39 countries like America, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, Europe, the UK, and Brazil. The World Health Organization will convene an emergency committee on Thursday next week to assess whether the monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern, given the rising number of cases.

The highest level warnings by the global health body currently only apply to the COVID-19 pandemic, polio, and Ebola. The UN health agency will convene an emergency committee meeting next week to assess whether the recent monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency.

WHO's emergency director for Africa said-

WHO's emergency director for Africa, Ibrahima Sosse Fall, said: "The monkeypox outbreak is unusual and worrying. For this reason, I have decided to convene the Emergency Committee under International Health Regulations next week to assess whether this outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern. We don't want to wait till the situation gets out of control.'

EU buys vaccine to curb monkeypox

The European Union (EU) has signed an agreement with Danish manufacturer Bavarian Nordic for the purchase of 109,090 doses of the vaccine to prevent the spread of monkeypox. European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the vaccines would be donated. For EU member states, Norway and Iceland. The first deliveries were scheduled for the end of June. For recent orders, Bavarian Nordic has raised its financial expectations for 2022 from between 1,800 and 2,000 million Danish kroner ($252 and $280 million) to between 1,900 and 2,100 million Danish kroner ($266 and $294 million). There are currently about 900 monkeypox cases in the EU, distributed in 20 countries.

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