The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the global monkeypox outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) – the strongest call to action the agency can make.
- It is the 7th time such a declaration has been made since 2009, the most recent being for Covid-19, which was given the same label by the WHO in 2020.
About Monkeypox
- Monkeypox is a viral infection typically found in animals in central and western Africa, although it can cause outbreaks in humans.
- Cases are occasionally identified in countries where the virus is not endemic, but the latest outbreak has been unprecedented.
- The WHO said the outbreak was largely among men who have sex with men who had reported having sex recently with new or multiple partners.
- The current outbreak started in May 2022, with 20 cases recorded in Britain on May 20, mostly among gay men. Since then, the outbreak has grown to almost 16,000 cases in 75 countries including India.
About public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)
PHEIC is based on international health regulations established in 2005, to define countries’ rights and obligations in handling cross-border public health occurrences.
- A PHEIC – is defined by the WHO’s international health regulations as “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other states through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response”.
- The purpose of a PHEIC is to focus attention on acute health risks that have the potential to spread internationally and threaten people around the world.
- They are intended to help in mobilizing and coordinating information and resources, both nationally and internationally, for the purposes of prevention and response.
The WHO had declared a PHEIC seven times, all for viral outbreaks:
- Monkeypox: July 2022 for Monkeypox, declared when the outbreak was reported from 75 countries.
- COVID-19: January 2020 for COVID-19, declared when the virus was first detected outside of China.
- Ebola: July 2019 for Ebola, for the second time, relating to the outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Zika: February 2016 for Zika, which began in Brazil and affected mostly Latin America.
- Ebola: August 2014 for Ebola, for an outbreak in West Africa that also spread to Europe and the US.
- Polio: May 2014 for polio, following a rise in the spread of “wild polio” and vaccine-derived virus in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
- H1N1: 2009 for the H1N1 or “swine flu,” which started in Mexico and spread across the world.
Three outbreaks have been considered but not declared a public health emergency of international concern. These include the deadly MERS outbreak first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2013.
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