The committee met for the first time last month but decided not to declare it a public health emergency of international concern. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged his “acute” awareness that any decision on possible designation involves “the consideration of many factors, with the ultimate goal of protecting public health.” The committee has already helped “delineate the dynamics of this epidemic,” he said in his opening remarks to committee members and advisers. “As the epidemic develops, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of public health interventions in different settings to better understand what works and what doesn’t.” “Life-threatening discrimination” Monkey pox, a rare viral disease, occurs mainly in rainforest areas of Central and West Africa, although it has been exported to other regions. This year, more than 14,000 cases have been reported in 71 Member States, from all six WHO regions. While the trend in some countries has declined, others are increasing. Some, with less access to diagnostics and vaccines, make the epidemic harder to track and contain. Tedros revealed that six countries reported their first cases last week and that the vast majority continue to be among men who have sex with men. “This pattern of transmission represents both an opportunity to implement targeted public health interventions and a challenge because in some countries, affected communities face life-threatening discrimination,” he said. He warned of “a very real concern” that men who have sex with men could be “stigmatised or blamed…making the outbreak much harder to detect and stop”. Treatment of monkeypox One of the most powerful tools against monkeypox is information, the WHO chief confirmed. “The more information people at risk of monkeypox have, the better able they are to protect themselves,” Tedros said. “Unfortunately, the information shared with the WHO from countries in West and Central Africa is still very little.” The inability to characterize the epidemiological situation in these regions represents a “substantial challenge” to designing interventions that can control the historically neglected disease. The UN health agency is working closely with affected communities across its regions, and as the outbreak unfolds, it has called for increased, “targeted and focused” access to all countermeasures for the hardest-hit populations. Meanwhile, it validates, supplies and ships tests in many countries and continues to provide support for expanded access to effective diagnostics. The commission will discuss the latest evidence and circumstances until Thursday and announce its decision in the coming days. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News. This Press Release has been issued by APO. The content is not monitored by the African Business editorial team and the content has not been checked or validated by our editorial teams, proof readers or fact checkers. The publisher is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
