New York: The World Health Network (WHN) said on Thursday that it considered monkeypox outbreak to be a ‘pandemic’ and urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to make a formal declaration.
The WHN — a global coalition of scientists and doctors formed as a people’s task force in response to COVID-19 pandemic — pointed out that over 3,500 confirmed monkeypox cases have been detected across 58 countries and ‘concerted global action’ is necessary to stop further spread.
“Declaration – the WHN today announced they are declaring the current monkeypox outbreak a pandemic with over 3500 cases across 58 countries and rapidly expanding across continents. The outbreak will not stop without concerted global action,” tweeted WHN co-founder Eric Feigl-Ding, an American public health scientist.
By declaring it as a pandemic, a concerted effort across multiple countries or over the world will be undertaken to prevent widespread harm, the WHN said in a statement.
Calling on the WHO to urgently declare its own PHEIC — public health emergency of international concern — Feighl-Ding reminded the UN health body of the ‘lessons’ of not declaring COVID as a PHEIC in early January 2020.
“There is no justification to wait for the monkeypox pandemic to grow further. The best time to act is now. By taking immediate action, we can control the outbreak with the least effort, and prevent consequences from becoming worse,” felt WHN co-founder Yaneer Bar-Yam, an American expert in the quantitative analysis of pandemics.
“Any delay only makes the effort harder and the consequences more severe,” he added.
The WHO, however, has reported fewer monkeypox cases than WHN — 2,756 in 29 countries till June 21 — is set to meet later today to decide on its designation for the monkeypox outbreak.
