Monkeypox: More than 6,000 cases reported, prompting 2nd WHO Emergency Meeting – National

According to the World Health Organization, more than 6,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported from 58 countries during the current outbreak.

The UN agency will convene a meeting of the committee in the week beginning July 18 or earlier, which will consider declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, the WHO’s highest alert level, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on a virtual Geneva press conference.

At its last meeting on June 27, the committee decided that the outbreak, which has seen cases increasing both in the African countries where it normally spreads and around the world, was not yet a public health emergency.

“I remain concerned about the scale and global spread of the virus,” Tedros said, adding that a lack of testing means many more cases are likely to go unreported.

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Monkeypox: WHO is considering declaring a public health emergency in a closed debate

Around 80 percent of the cases are in Europe, he said.

Monkeypox, a normally mild viral infection that causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, has been spreading worldwide since early May. The fatality rate in previous outbreaks of the currently spreading strain has been around one percent.

Canada has had 300 confirmed cases of monkeypox as of July 4, according to an announcement by the Public Health Agency of Canada earlier this week.

Quebec has the highest number of cases with 211 cases, while Ontario has reported 77 cases. There are also eight confirmed cases in Alberta and four cases in British Columbia.