whn declares monkeypox A pandemic

 WHO meeting to be held on 23 June to decide on their monkeypox outbreak designation. Even with death rates much lower than smallpox, unless actions are taken to stop the ongoing spread—actions that can be practically implemented—millions of people will die and many more will become blind and disabled, it said.

With 3,417 confirmed Monkeypox cases reported across 58 countries, World Health Network (WHN) has announced that they are declaring the current monkeypox outbreak a pandemic.The outbreak is rapidly expanding across multiple continents and will not stop without concerted global action, it said in a statement.

#BreakingNews WHN declares #Monkeypox a #pandemic. There are now 3,417 confirmed cases reported across 58 countries and rapidly expanding across continents. It will not stop without concerted #precautionary global action. https://t.co/frgxxIGTEr #MPVX #globalaction #disease pic.twitter.com/tAE9wE0PPl

— World Health Network (@TheWHN) June 23, 2022

The WHN announcement comes ahead of WHO meeting to be held on 23 June to decide on their monkeypox outbreak designation.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. The actions needed now only require clear public communication about symptoms, widely available testing, and contact tracing with very few quarantines. Any delay only makes the effort harder and the consequences more severe", said Yaneer Bar-Yam, PhD, President of New England Complex System Institute and co-founder of WHN.

The first Emergency Committee meeting regarding the multi-country #monkeypox outbreak is currently ongoing https://t.co/1zoGHShNb0 pic.twitter.com/zyWlOu0uE2

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 23, 2022

“The WHO needs to urgently declare its own Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)—the lessons of not declaring a PHEIC immediately in early January 2020 should be remembered as a history lesson of what acting late on an epidemic can mean for the world," said Eric Feigl-Ding, PhD, Epidemiologist and Health Economist, and co-founder of WHN.The outbreak will not stop without concerted global action, it said.

Even with death rates much lower than smallpox, unless actions are taken to stop the ongoing spread—actions that can be practically implemented—millions of people will die and many more will become blind and disabled, it said.

WHN said that the essential purpose of declaring Monkeypox a pandemic is to achieve a concerted effort across multiple countries or over the world to prevent widespread harm.