WHO: More than 6,000 monkeypox cases reported, another emergency meeting set

LONDON, July 6, More than 6,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported from 58 countries in the current outbreak. The U.N. agency will reconvene a committee meeting that will advise declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, the WHO’s highest level of alert, in the week beginning July 18 or sooner, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference from Geneva.

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At its previous meeting on June 27, the committee decided that the outbreak, which has seen cases rising both in the African countries where it usually spreads and globally, was not yet a health emergency.

“I continue to be concerned by the scale and spread of the virus across the world,” Tedros said, adding that a lack of testing meant that there were likely many more cases going unreported.
Around 80% of cases are in Europe, he said.

monkeypox cases updates

Monkeypox, a usually 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 strain has been around 1%.

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