World Health Organization Names Monkeypox a Global Health Emergency

World Health Organization Names Monkeypox a Global Health Emergency

On Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an "extraordinary" situation.

WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

The monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.

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The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and follows a worldwide upsurge in cases.

It came at the end of the second meeting of the WHO's emergency committee on the virus.

More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.

There are only two other such health emergencies at present - the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.

On Thursday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH)  announced 30 additional cases of monkeypox in adult males within the past seven days, bringing the total number of monkeypox cases in the Commonwealth to 79 residents since the state’s first case was announced May 18. DPH provides public updates on monkeypox on a weekly basis each Thursday.

The 30 cases announced today had their diagnoses between July 14 and July 20. DPH is working with local health officials, the patients, and healthcare providers to identify individuals who may have been in contact with the patients while they were infectious. Individuals with monkeypox are advised to isolate and avoid contact with others until they are no longer infectious.

The number of health care providers and locations offering vaccination across the state has expanded to 11 as federal allocation of the vaccine has been increased.  The list of health care provider sites is updated on a rolling basis on the Commonwealth’s monkeypox vaccine website. As of July 20, 2,952 doses of JYNNEOS vaccine had been administered.

UPDATE: A Rhode Island Department of Health official tells GoLocal, that RI now has nine confirmed cases.