Monkeypox outbreak poses 'real threat' to public health: WHO official

Mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, under the microscope. Photo / CDC via AP

The World Health Organisation's top official in Europe has called for urgent action by authorities and civic groups to control fast-rising cases of monkeypox that he said posed a real risk to public health.

Europe has emerged as the epicentre of an outbreak of monkeypox, with more than 1500 cases identified in 25 European countries, which account for 85 per cent of global cases, Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO's director of its European region, said at a news conference on Wednesday (Thursday NZT).

The WHO will convene its emergency committee in Geneva next week, Kluge added, to determine if the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, a formal declaration that calls for a coordinated response between countries.

"The magnitude of this outbreak poses a real risk," Kluge said. "The longer the virus circulates, the more it will extend its reach, and the stronger the disease's foothold will get in nonendemic countries."

Monkeypox is a viral infection endemic in West Africa that has now spread to 39 countries, including 32 that have no previous experience of it, the WHO director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters on Tuesday. Countries outside Africa and Europe that have identified cases of monkeypox include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel and the United States.

Infections mostly result from close physical contact and mainly affect men who have sex with men, but it can also spread through respiratory droplets in prolonged face-to-face contact, Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said at the news conference on Wednesday. Monkeypox cases have also been found among close family members, but the risks of transmission among the general population, Ammon said, were "rather low".

Monkeypox is not attached to any single social group, Kluge said, cautioning that stigmatising the virus as a gay disease would undermine efforts to develop an effective public health response, as it had in tackling HIV and AIDS.

Vaccine stockpiling fears

The WHO has recorded 27 deaths from the disease in Africa this year but none in Europe. Infections are mostly mild and do not require hospitalisation, but people in close contact with those infected with the virus should also isolate for 21 days.

Kluge repeated his fears that the spread of monkeypox might accelerate during the summer months in Europe when hundreds of Pride events, music festivals and other mass gatherings will be held, but he said that monkeypox was not a reason to cancel events. The gatherings provided a valuable opportunity to raise awareness of the disease, he said, urging event organisers, local communities and dating apps to provide clear messaging on how to prevent or deal with the illness.

Kluge called for urgent action by European countries to scale up surveillance, diagnostic testing and genetic sequencing, and tracing the contacts and sexual partners of infected people. The WHO has released emergency funds to bolster laboratory capacity for identifying the monkeypox virus in countries that lacked it, he said.

But mass vaccination is not recommended, Kluge said, echoing comments by Tedros on Tuesday, and he underscored concerns that rich countries would repeat the mistakes of the Covid-19 pandemic and quickly monopolise the limited stocks of vaccine.

Tedros said that the WHO was working with member states to develop an initiative that would ensure more equitable access but, according to Kluge, "We're already seeing a rush in some quarters to acquire and stockpile these."

The WHO is also working with experts to come up as soon as possible with another name for monkeypox and the disease it produces, Tedros said on Tuesday.

The present name is "misleading and stigmatising", Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman, said on Wednesday. Preliminary research points to the possibility of undetected human-to-human transmission for some years, but the existing name, he said, could encourage the erroneous belief that people are not susceptible to infection unless exposed through contact with Africa or the animals associated with it.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Nick Cumming-Bruce
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