The Secretary General of the World Health Organization, on Saturday, July 23, announcing the maximum warning, called the widespread outbreak of monkeypox in more than 70 countries a "global emergency."
Despite the lack of consensus among experts on the emergency committee, Tedros Adhanom, in an unprecedented move, personally decided to declare monkeypox a global emergency to end the controversy.
This is the first time that the presidency of this United Nations body has made such a decision "unilaterally" without the advice of experts.
He said that despite the declaration of a global emergency over monkeypox, disease outbreaks are currently shared among homosexual men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.
In completing his statement, he added that "it is possible to stop the spread of monkeypox" if appropriate and correct methods are applied.
Earlier, a senior monkeypox expert at the World Health Organization emphasized that anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, could potentially be infected.
The declaration of an emergency by the World Health Organization is the highest level of warning of this organization to deal with existing threats against public health. However, it does not come with immediate consequences.
Its purpose is to announce the danger and warn the governments to take necessary measures to protect their population from the disease.
In such cases, governments are advised to raise awareness among doctors and hospitals so that necessary protective measures can be taken in the face of suspected disease cases. In addition, the community people should receive the required training on preventing the disease.
Monkeypox is usually spread through close physical contact with the other person. The initial and common symptoms of this infection are generally high fever, blisters and purulent pimples on the skin of the hands and feet, and severe itching like chicken pox.
Earlier in 2020, the World Health Organization had declared the epidemic of the Covid-19 virus a "global emergency."
The current plans of the World Health Organization to deal with the outbreak of monkeypox are to increase awareness about contracting this disease among high-risk populations and encourage compliance with health regulations and pay more attention to personal safety, especially in sexual relations.