Nagpur: After detecting over 3,400 cases across 42 countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday declared the Monkeypox disease a global emergency.
The global health body said that the outbreak is rapidly expanding across multiple continents and will not stop with concreted global action.
It further stated that even though the death rate in the monkeypox virus is lesser than that of smallpox, unless actions are taken to stop the ongoing spread, millions of people will die and many more will become blind and disabled, it said.
The WHN said that the purpose of declaring Monkeypox a pandemic is to achieve a concerted effort across multiple countries or over the world to prevent widespread them. The global health agency has also termed the outbreak as an ‘extraordinary event’ and the disease is at risk of spreading across more borders.
President of New England Complex System Institute and co-founder of WHN, Yaneer Bar-Yam, PhD, said, “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.”
