WHO declares monkeypox a global emergency

WHO says the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries now qualifies as a global emergency

International passengers are screened for monkeypox at the Chennai airport on July 16, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI

The World Health Organisation has declared the global monkeypox outbreak a 'public health emergency of international concern' (PHEIC), one step below that of a 'pandemic.'

A PHEIC, according to the WHO, constitutes "...an extraordinary event, which constitutes a public health risk to other States through the international spread, and which potentially requires a coordinated international response.."

On January 30, 2020, the organisation had categorised COVID-19 as a PHEIC, when about 7,500 cases of novel coronavirus were reported. On March 11 that year, the agency elevated it to 'pandemic.'

The latest decision followed a seven-hour meeting on Thursday, July 21, of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to discuss the monkeypox outbreak in several countries. It is this Committee of the WHO that decides on the seriousness of a public health crisis.

Though the Committee didn't reach a consensus on whether the outbreak constituted a PHEIC, Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, decided that the situation merited such a classification.

"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.

For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern," he stated.