The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene an emergency committee Thursday to discuss whether monkeypox represents a public health emergency of international concern..COVID-19 and polio are currently the only viruses that fit that warning level, which is the highest that can be issued by the WHO.."The outbreak of monkeypox is unusual and concerning," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday.."For that reason, I have decided to convene the Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations next week, to assess whether this outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.".WHO's emergencies director for Africa, Ibrahima Socé Fall, added, "we don't want to wait until the situation is out of control.".If the WHO determines the monkeypox outbreak constitutes a global health emergency, that will help accelerate research and funding to contain it..There have been a total of 1,600 confirmed and 1,500 suspected cases of monkeypox this year. As of June 9, Canada detected 112 infections, with health officials expected to provide updated numbers this week..Tedros also said WHO's working with partners on changing the name of monkeypox and its variants, fearing its current name could lead to racism and stigma towards African countries..A similar discussion happened in early 2020, when the WHO renamed SARS-CoV-2 after people around the world took to calling it the China or Wuhan virus..“In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing,” said a letter from more than 30 international scientists last week..Of the 72 people that died from monkeypox this year, all of them have been in Africa, with the majority occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
