Monkeypox emergency declaration 'better late than never'

The World Health Organisation's weekend announcement that Monkeypox represented a global health emergency has been welcomed with relief by doctors and scientists. A global health emergency has only been declared twice before - once for the efforts to eradicate polio, and once for the coronavirus pandemic.

People stand in long lines to receive the monkeypox vaccine at San Francisco General Hospital. Source: AAP

Monkeypox spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions.

So far this year, there have been more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox in more than 75 countries, and five deaths in Africa.

The viral disease has been spreading chiefly in men who have sex with men in the recent outbreak, outside Africa where it is endemic.

The WHO and national governments have been facing intense pressure from scientists and public health experts to take more action on monkeypox.

Dr. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the WHO's declaration will accelerate the response to the unfolding epidemic.

 

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