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"We
do at this moment still believe that this outbreak of monkeypox
can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups but
time is going by and we all need to pull together to make that
happen," Rosamund Lewis, WHO Technical Lead on Monkeypox, told
reporters.
The outbreak represents a global health emergency, the WHO's
highest level of alert, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said on Saturday.
The WHO label - a "public health emergency of international
concern" - is designed to trigger a coordinated international
response and could unlock funding to collaborate on sharing
vaccines and treatments.
"WHO is still working towards determining a global coordination
mechanism. At the moment, it's something that's still in
discussion," Lewis said.
First identified in monkeys, the virus is transmitted chiefly
through close contact with an infected person. Until this year,
the viral disease has rarely spread outside Africa where it is
endemic.
But reports of a handful of cases in Britain in early May
signalled that the outbreak had moved into Europe.
This year, there have been more than 16,000 confirmed cases of
monkeypox in more than 75 countries. Lewis said the real number
was probably higher. Five deaths, all of which occurred in
Africa, have been reported.
(Writing by Paul Carrel, editing by Kirsti Knolle, Robert Birsel)
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