Mary Wilson
Well-known member
June 23, 20221:20 PM UTC
By Jennifer Rigby
LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization will decide on Thursday whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency, stirring criticism from leading African scientists who say it has been a crisis in their region for years.
The deliberations and scrutiny of the WHO's response to the outbreak follows concerns over how the United Nations agency and governments worldwide handled COVID-19 in early 2020.
A "public health emergency of international concern" is WHO's highest level of alert. The agency does not declare pandemics, but it did start using the term to describe COVID-19 in March 2020.
For many governments, that - rather than WHO's earlier declaration of an emergency in January - was the moment they began to take real action to try to contain COVID, which proved to be too late to make a difference.
Monkeypox does not spread nearly as easily as COVID and there are vaccines and treatments available, unlike for the coronavirus when it emerged. But it has still raised alarm.
https://www.reuters.com/world/afric...-due-who-sparks-african-criticism-2022-06-23/
By Jennifer Rigby
LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization will decide on Thursday whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency, stirring criticism from leading African scientists who say it has been a crisis in their region for years.
The deliberations and scrutiny of the WHO's response to the outbreak follows concerns over how the United Nations agency and governments worldwide handled COVID-19 in early 2020.
A "public health emergency of international concern" is WHO's highest level of alert. The agency does not declare pandemics, but it did start using the term to describe COVID-19 in March 2020.
For many governments, that - rather than WHO's earlier declaration of an emergency in January - was the moment they began to take real action to try to contain COVID, which proved to be too late to make a difference.
Monkeypox does not spread nearly as easily as COVID and there are vaccines and treatments available, unlike for the coronavirus when it emerged. But it has still raised alarm.
https://www.reuters.com/world/afric...-due-who-sparks-african-criticism-2022-06-23/