Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

News

WHO Declares Monkeypox Outbreak a Global Health Emergency After 5 Deaths Worldwide

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

“I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Saturday morning during a briefing in Geneva.

Members of an expert committee met on Thursday to decide if the current monkeypox outbreak should be escalated to a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Of the virologists, vaccinologists, epidemiologists, and health experts, nine voted against declaring monkeypox a PHEIC, and six voted in favor, according to Reuters.

The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee were “resolved by consensus to advise the WHO Director-General that at this stage the outbreak should be determined to not constitute a PHEIC.”

“However, the Committee unanimously acknowledged the emergency nature of the event and that controlling the further spread of outbreak requires intense response efforts,” according to the WHO. “The Committee advised that the event should be closely monitored and reviewed after a few weeks, once more information about the current unknowns becomes available, to determine if significant changes have occurred that may warrant a reconsideration of their advice.”

In the end, Ghebreyesus overrode the committee and declared monkeypox to be a public health emergency of international concern – which is the WHO’s highest level of alert.

According to The Nation’s Health website, “A PHEIC gives WHO authority to make formal recommendations to contain an outbreak. The declaration is intended to raise public awareness and can galvanize funding, expertise, and resources from other member nations, said Lawrence Gostin, JD, an international health law professor at Georgetown University.”

ABC News noted that this is the seventh event declared a PHEIC by the WHO since 2007, “The other six include the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009; the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2013 to 2015; the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2018 to 2020; the Zika outbreak in 2016; the ongoing spread of poliovirus that started in 2014; and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Library of Medicine.”

Tedros stated, “Although I’m declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment, this is an outbreak that’s concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners. That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups.”

The World Health Organization director-general added, “Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been more than 16,000 global cases of monkeypox in 2022 in 74 countries.

There have been nearly 3,000 cases in the United States this year, according to the CDC. As of Wednesday, there were 679 cases of monkeypox in New York – 94% of them in New York City, according to state officials.

There have reportedly been a total of five deaths from monkeypox worldwide.

The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported, “Though the outbreak is heavily concentrated in Europe, the five deaths have been reported in African nations.”

The Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority (BARDA) – which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – has purchased a total of 6.9 million monkeypox vaccines through mid-2023.

The WHO noted that monkeypox is a “viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.”

“Monkeypox primarily occurs in central and west Africa, often in proximity to tropical rainforests, and has been increasingly appearing in urban areas,” the global health agency stated. “Animal hosts include a range of rodents and non-human primates.”

READ 89 COMMENTS
  • Chuckster says:

    Those 5 were probably all immunodeficient (HIV or other illness caused). Hopefully we get to pull out of the WHO again in 2024 when we get someone who’s not beholden to the “world order”, and back to common sense in healthcare and smaller limited government. If you’ve been inoculated for smallpox, you already probably have some immunity to this.

  • Milton Wiseman says:

    Why would any country even listen to this nut case at the U.N. the WHO is a money grabbing bunch of has been researchers and none practicing doctors. Real doctors practice medicine, they help people. The WHO simply help themselves to others money. I for one could give a crap what this asshat has to say as it relates to health care or any other matter related to ANYTHING related to health, he is simply whoring for handouts.

  • AllNotWell says:

    Millions dead from the censorship of covid early treatment from a gain of function virus created by scientists from China and the USA. Loose on the world by Fauci’s minions. 5 deaths does not make a pandemic. Plus this money virus is spread by contact only. Stop the fearmongering. Intelligent citizens must understand the gaslighting being done and stop being afraid of a vrus and fear politicans spreading a destruction of our human rights.

  • Patriot1951 says:

    WHO has even less credibility than the CDC!

  • Dorothy says:

    He just said it himself, this involves the homosexuals. We did not hear of any straight people contacting it. Why do homosexuals have sex with so many partners like a bunch of animals. They just do not care who they have sex with.

  • TOP STORIES

    News

    Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, revealed Thursday she has been suspended from Barnard College over her involvement in anti-Israel protests on Columbia...

    News

    A second juror was excused from the jury in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Thursday after it was revealed the man was...

    News

    Joe Biden had quite the day on Wednesday, and that’s saying something for the often-confused president. Traveling to Pennsylvania to once again pander to...

    News

    Megyn Kelly did not mince her words when dealing with CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin. As well as being a part of the left-wing commentariat, Toobin...

    >