WHO Declares Public Health Emergency Over Monkeypox Virus

CNBC: The World Health Organization has activated its highest alert level for the growing monkeypox outbreak, declaring the virus a public health emergency of international concern. The rare designation means the WHO now views the outbreak as a significant enough threat to global health that a coordinated international response is needed to prevent the virus from spreading further and potentially escalating into a pandemic. Although the declaration does not impose requirements on national governments, it serves as an urgent call for action. The WHO can only issue guidance and recommendations to its member states, not mandates. Member states are required to report events that pose a threat to global health. The U.N. agency declined last month to declare a global emergency in response to monkeypox. But infections have increased substantially over the past several weeks, pushing WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to issue the highest alert (CNBC). 

USA Today: U.N. health agency Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement after the WHO’s expert committee couldn’t reach a consensus on whether to apply the highest level of alert to the virus… Ghebreyesus made the decision despite a lack of consensus among experts, calling himself “a tiebreaker.” It was the first time a U.N. health agency chief has unilaterally made such a decision without an expert recommendation (USA Today).