Monkeypox is a global health emergency. This was stated today by the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference.
This is the WHO’s highest alert level. The goal of the alert is to try to contain the monkeypox epidemic, which has almost hit 17,000 people in 74 countries.
“I have decided to declare a public health emergency of international concern,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press conference, stating that the risk in the world is relatively moderate apart from Europe where it is high. Tedros explained that the expert committee failed to reach a consensus, remaining divided on the need to activate the highest level of alert. In the end, it was up to the CEO to decide. “It is a call to actionbut it’s not the first, “said Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergency manager, who said he hoped it could lead to collective action against disease. Since early May, when it was detected outside countries where it is endemic, the disease has affected more than 16,836 people in 74 countries, according to the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 22.
The Ministry of Health, with a specific ordinance, has already prepared, together with the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, the procedures for reporting individual cases. In Italy so far 407 cases with a tendency to stabilization have been recorded. The situation is under constant monitoring but it is not believed that it should cause particular alarmism. “This was stated by the director general of prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gianni Rezza.
The first two cases were found in the province of Cremona, attested by Ats Val Padana: one of the two infected has already recovered, the other is still undergoing specific therapy but is fine. “No one has revealed any particular problems – explains Luigi Vezzosi, medical director of the Ats Infectious Diseases Prevention Unit – and it was mostly precautionary monitoring followed by isolation”. The two Cremonese cases are apparently disconnected from each other, with residences in two different towns in the province. And neither had traveled before contracting the virus.
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The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended extending the indication of the smallpox vaccine Imvanex to include use for the protection of adults from monkeypox. (HANDLE). (HANDLE)
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