More than 17,000 cases of monkeypox have so far been recorded in no less than 74 countries.
Such a finding prompted, among others, the WHO Emergency Committee, meeting this Saturday, to trigger the organization's highest level of alert.
“The risk associated with monkeypox is moderate overall in all regions, except in Europe, where we estimate that the risk is high”, assures the director of the institution, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“There is also a clear risk of international expansion, although the risk of interference with international traffic remains low for now.
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"There is also a clear risk of further international spread, although the risk of interference with international traffic remains low for the moment."-@DrTedros #monkeypox https://t.co/m3Pa6QwK8a
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 23, 2022
Used in "serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected" situations, this alert level is defined by the WHO during an "extraordinary event" whose spread constitutes a "risk to public health in other States" and may require "coordinated international action".
The decision to raise the alert level fell to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, based on recommendations from a committee of virologists, vaccinologists, epidemiologists and other leading disease control experts. plan.
More than 1,450 confirmed cases in France
“We have an epidemic that is spreading rapidly around the world, with new modes of transmission, which are too little understood and which meets the criteria of international health regulations”, continued the director general.
The Monkeypox Emergency Committee is made up of 16 people, led by Dr Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, former Director of Vaccines and Immunization at WHO and who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the countries where the disease is endemic.
The WHO has resorted to its highest level of alert six times since 2009, the last concerning the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read also“Unlike Covid, monkey pox can be seen”: the fears of the first candidates for vaccination
France has 1,453 confirmed cases of infection with the monkeypox virus, health authorities announced on Wednesday, specifying that this notable increase should not be interpreted as "an exceptional increase" because it includes a "catch-up of data ".
