The monkeypox emergency declaration, explained

The WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday, its first time using the designation since the start of the Covid pandemic.

🦠 A deeper dive… The move is effectively the WHO’s call to arms for its member states around the world to coordinate resources and improve their responses to the ongoing outbreak – though the agency can only issue guidance and recommendations, not mandates.

• More than 16,000 monkeypox cases have been reported across 75 countries so far this year, resulting in a total of five deaths (all in Africa). The number of confirmed infections has risen 77% from late June through early July, per WHO data.
• The virus is spread through close contact with an infected person – or materials that have touched infected skin – and causes a rash that can spread over the body, with most people recovering within two to four weeks. Men who have sex with men are currently at the highest risk of infection, per global health authorities.

📝 One thing to note: The WHO’s decision goes against the majority view of a committee it convened to advise on the topic. 9 of the 15 members expressed concerns over the weekend that declaring a public health emergency might cause undue alarm among the general public, where the risk is still very low.

+More news: The CDC on Friday announced the first two recorded cases of children infected with monkeypox; they’re believed to have caught the disease through household transmission.

+Dive deeper: Vaccines (though limited) and treatments for monkeypox are already in circulation, which the WSJ reports is unusual for an emerging disease.