Africa: WHO Director-General's Opening Remarks At 3rd Meeting of the Ihr Emergency Committee - Multi-Country Outbreak of Monkeypox - 20 October 2022

20 October 2022
World Health Organization (Geneva)
press release

Our chair, Dr Okwo-Bele,

Our Vice-Chair, Dr Low,

Dear members and advisors of the Emergency Committee, dear colleagues and friends,

Thank you to our chair and vice-chair for joining us in Geneva, and to all of you for joining us from around the world.

When you first met in June, just over 3000 cases of monkeypox had been reported to WHO.

By your second meeting, there were 16 thousand cases.

Now, more than 70,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported, including 26 deaths.

However, we are now seeing a promising decline globally.

The number of reported cases has dropped for eight straight weeks. This is very encouraging.

But progress in the Americas is less certain, and this region accounted for almost 90% of cases reported last week.

Several countries are still entering the peak phase of the outbreak, and there is likely to be under reporting in others.

We are also seeing several other situations which are cause of concern.

In Ghana, there is a surge of cases, with 4 deaths.

And in Sudan, we are seeing a separate outbreak of clade one monkeypox.

While we have the knowledge, vaccines and treatments to prevent and control monkeypox outbreaks, those resources are not available everywhere. Scaling up and decentralizing diagnostic capacity are critical.

Stopping human-to-human transmission of monkeypox globally requires a comprehensive approach, with public health measures focused on communities at highest risk.

Engagement with affected communities, giving them a voice in the response, is essential.

We must go further to support countries to integrate services to prevent and treat monkeypox with other services for sexual health and HIV prevention and care.

Vaccination can be rolled out even as we continue to learn more about its effectiveness in this outbreak.

And of course, investing in epidemic readiness and research in a One Health Approach is needed to learn more about this emerging disease and reduce the risk of continuing emergence in all countries.

I am grateful to each of you for sharing your time and expertise, and I look forward to your recommendations.

I thank you.

Read the original article on WHO.

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