WHO Declares Monkeypox As A Worldwide Health Emergency

On Saturday, the World Health Organisation formally declared the Monkeypox epidemic a worldwide health emergency.

The international health organization reported that it placed the monkeypox outbreak at the highest level of concern, categorizing it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Monkeypox is an uncommon viral zoonotic infectious disease (an infection spread from animals to humans) that is endemic in regions in and close to tropical rainforests in Central and West Africa.

“It is caused by the Monkeypox virus which belongs to the same Orthopoxviral genus and Poxviridae family of viruses as the Variola virus (Smallpox virus), the Vaccinia virus (used in smallpox vaccine for eradication programme), and the cowpox virus (used in earlier generations of smallpox vaccines) and some other viruses.”

Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, stated in a press conference that the decision was made due to the upsurge in monkeypox cases.

“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little. For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global Monkeypox outbreak represents a Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” he said.

According to reports from WHO, the number of confirmed cases increased by 77% from late June to early July and there have been no fewer than 16,000 cases of monkeypox reported worldwide this year in more than 70 nations.

The NCDC reported that Nigeria has seen 101 cases of monkeypox in 2022, the highest number since the disease’s reappearance in 2017.