The monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue following a worldwide upsurge in cases.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the decision was made after WHO’s expert team held a second meeting to discuss the situation, though the Emergency Committee didn’t reach a consensus.
“In short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little,” Tedros said.
He also made it clear that for the time being the monkeypox outbreak is “concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.”
“That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups,” he added.
At least 92 confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases of monkeypox were reported from 12 member states that are not endemic for the virus, the UN agency said on Saturday.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator, said the U.S. administration is looking at how a public health emergency declaration might bolster the U.S. response to the outbreak. “There’s no final decision on this that I’m aware of,” he said. “It’s an ongoing, but a very active conversation at HHS.”