Monkeypox declared global emergency by World Health Organisation

The World Health Organisation has taken drastic action over the global monkeypox outbreak, calling it an “extraordinary” situation.

The World Health Organisation has declared the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries as a global emergency, describing it an “extraordinary” situation.

The WHO’s highest level of alert could boost further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.

Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent until May, when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to call monkeypox a global emergency despite a lack of consensus among experts on the UN health agency’s emergency committee.

It is the first time a UN health agency chief has made such a decision without an expert recommendation.

A doctor administers a dose of the monkeypox vaccine in London. Picture: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little,” the UN chief said.

“I know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views.”

The illness can be transmitted from person to person through air droplets, close bodily contact, including sexual contact, or sharing contaminated linens or objects.

Dozens of cases have been reported in Australia since the first confirmed case on May 20.

WHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.