The World Health Organization held the first meeting of experts, yesterday, Thursday, to assess whether the spread of monkeypox should be considered a “public health emergency of international concern.”
The independent experts devoted their meeting to studying whether the world needs to issue a warning about the growing health threat, knowing that it is the first meeting of the International Health Emergency Committee on the spread of monkeypox in a number of countries.
The committee is supposed to issue a statement in the coming days, according to the World Health Organization, which revealed that it was a closed meeting.
For reference, declaring a global health emergency has no immediate practical consequences, other than making governments and people more vigilant.
The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a global public health emergency on January 30, 2020.
The monkeypox committee of the World Health Organization is made up of about a dozen scientists.
Although the disease has spread in Africa for years, it has caused an international uproar with its recent outbreak in many countries that have not witnessed it before.
