The World Health Organization has declared monkeypox as a global health emergency

 The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared monkeypox as a global health emergency.

According to the French news agency AFP, the head of the WHO, Dr. Tedros, said on Saturday that monkeypox is a great threat.

He said that 'I have decided that the spread of monkeypox has become a matter of public health emergency that deserves global attention.'

According to the Associated Press, although monkeypox has been present in parts of central and western Africa for decades, its widespread spread outside of the continent was not known until recently.

The WHO's declaration of a global emergency means that the monkeypox outbreak is an 'extraordinary event' that could spread to more countries and requires a coordinated global response.

The WHO has previously declared emergencies for pandemics such as the Corona virus, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and ongoing efforts to eradicate polio.

A state of emergency is often declared to draw global resources and attention to an epidemic.

Last month, a WHO expert committee said the worldwide outbreak of monkeypox did not yet constitute an international emergency, but the panel reconvened this week to reassess the situation. .

According to the US Department of Health, more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries since May, while deaths from the disease have been reported only in Africa, where a more dangerous strain of the virus is spreading.

In Africa, monkeypox is primarily transmitted to people from infected wild animals such as rodents, but the virus does not usually cross borders.

WHO monkeypox expert Dr Rosamond Lewis said this week that 99% of monkeypox cases outside Africa were in men.

Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said it was surprising why the WHO had not already declared monkeypox a global emergency even though the situation arose weeks ago. .