WHO declares monkeypox a global health emergency, here's what it means

The World Health Organisation has said the expanding ‘monkeypox’ outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation and declared it a global health emergency.

The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue; it came at the end of the second meeting of the WHO's emergency committee on the virus.

More than 16,000 cases have been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.

The WHO Director-General decided to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among members of the emergency committee. It was the first time the chief of the UN health agency has taken such an action.

“In short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations,” Tedros said.

“I know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views among the members" of the committee, he added.

Although monkeypox has surfaced in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May, when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

Declaring a global emergency means the monkeypox outbreak is an “extraordinary event” that could spill over into more countries and requires a coordinated global response.

WHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the ongoing effort to eradicate Polio; the emergency declaration mostly serves as a plea to draw more global resources and attention to an outbreak.

Health officials say people at highest risk of exposure to monkeypox include some gay and bisexual men, as well as some healthcare workers. The symptoms typically include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery, chickenpox-like rash or lesions - often on the mouth or genitals in the recent cases. Infections are usually mild.