Since its appearance, monkeypox has not stopped spreading around the world, so that at the moment there have been cases in 71 countries and its infections have multiplied and spread so fast in the last month that the World Health Organization (WHO) began to assess the situation and has just declared it a global health emergency.
With Spain as the most affected country with nearly 3,400 confirmed cases and with more than 16,000 registered infections in almost 80 countries, on July 21, WHO experts met to assess the possibility of declaring this disease a health emergency. world.
With this data as background, through the official Twitter account of the World Health Organization, in the early hours of this July 23, the general director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that monkeypox is declared as an emergency of public health of international importance.
We have an outbreak that has spread rapidly around the world through new modes of transmission, about which we understand very little, and which meets the criteria for a public health emergency.
– Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General
LIVE: Media briefing on #monkeypox with @DrTedros https://t.co/2DkNE1eeoU
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 23, 2022
The global health emergency is considered the highest level of alert as stipulated in the International Health Regulations, so this decision seeks to have international coordination, with which they could unlock funds and even meet to collaborate in the exchange of vaccines and treatments.
In the last four weeks, infections have quadrupled in the world, since they went from 4,000 to 16,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox, which, consequently, doubled the number of countries affected.
With the WHO decision, countries are expected to invest significant resources to control the outbreak, obtain more funds for a favorable response and encourage nations to work and share the vaccines or treatments that are necessary to curb the spread of monkeypox. .