Experts have sounded the alarm about its potential as a global threat for years now, but their warnings went mostly unheeded. Monkeypox has periodically flared in some African countries for decades. “We need global vaccine and therapeutics production and stockpiling approaches that don’t yet exist.” “As much as the world is tired of infectious disease crises, they are part of a new normal that is going to demand a lot of ongoing attention and resources,” he said. The devastation of the Covid pandemic and the surge in monkeypox should serve as a warning to governments to prepare for new epidemics without notice, said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Now, an emerging virus can quickly transcend national boundaries to become a global threat.īut most public health authorities remain equipped only to handle chronic diseases or small outbreaks. The organization may need such a system as outbreaks become more frequent.ĭeforestation, globalization and climate change are creating more opportunities for pathogens to jump from animals to people. consider creating “an intermediate level of alert” for outbreaks of moderate concern. “But we know if we let this go, and we don’t do enough, then it will happen at some point.”Ĭommittee members suggested at the time that the W.H.O. We don’t see the virus in children, we don’t see it in pregnant women,” she added. Isabella Eckerle, a clinical virologist at the University of Geneva. “Do you want to declare the emergency the moment it’s really bad, or do you want to do it in advance?” said Dr. And in interviews, some experts said they did not agree with the rationale. Though the virus is spreading primarily through close contact, researchers are still assessing the routes of transmission in the current outbreak.
advisers said at the end of June that they did not recommend an emergency declaration in part because the disease had not moved out of the primary risk group, men who have sex with men, to affect pregnant women, children or older adults, who are at greater risk of severe illness if they are infected.
Many of the infected in these countries report no known source of infection, indicating undetected community spread.
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