The World Health Organization (WHO) will make a decision on whether the Monkeypox outbreak is a world health emergency.
The WHO will convene an emergency committee on Thursday next week to assess whether the monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern.
According to the WHO, monkeypox has spread to more than 30 countries globally with 1,600 cases confirmed and another 1,500 cases suspected.
“It’s now clear that there is an unusual situation, meaning [that] even the virus is behaving unusually from how it used to behave in the past.” WHO Director General, Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid said in a press conference briefing.
The United Nations has issued the highest level of warning regarding the illness, a warning level which currently applies to only the COVID-19 pandemic and polio.
Dr. Lattanaxay Phetsouvanh, Director-General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control, said on 27 May that Laos has not reported any infections of Monkeypox virus, however the country is at risk from people traveling from endemic countries.
