The highest alert that World Health Organization (WHO) can issue was given following a worldwide upsurge in monkey pox cases. The alert was given at the end of the second meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee on the virus, IHR Emergency Committee.
There are only two other such health emergencies at present – the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio. Since the first outbreak, there are now more than 16 thousand reported cases of monkey pox from 75 countries and territories, and five deaths.
“WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region where we assess the risk as high. There is also a clear risk of further international spread, although the risk of interference with international traffic remains low for the moment. So 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. For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General’s statement at the press conference on the 23rd of July 2022.
The director went further to state although they have declared monkeypox as a public health emergency,”for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners. That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups.”
World Health Organization has also urged civil society organization to work with them to fight stigma and discrimination. Does this fall under public health emergency for a predominantly Christian country?
