In the most recent outbreak, the World Health Organization listed more than 6,000 cases of monkeypox from 58 different countries and said it would declare the outbreak as a ‘global health emergency’ after an emergency meeting.

In a previous meeting on June 27, the committee decided that the outbreak, which has seen cases raising in the African countries, was not yet a health emergency.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "I continue to be concerned by the scale and spread of the virus across the world." He further added that around 80% of cases were reported in Europe and lack of testing would mean many cases being unreported.

Since the beginning of May, monkeypox, a typically mild viral infection that results in flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, has been spreading throughout the world. The present strain has had past outbreaks in Africa with a fatality rate of about 1%, but so far this outbreak appears to be less deadly in the non-endemic nations. (ETHealthWorld, July 07, 2022)