The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed it will be convening an emergency committee to assess the threat of monkeypox.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the committee will discuss whether to declare the virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Dr Ghebreyesus noted the organisation has already recorded more cases in the first eight months of 2024 than in the whole of last year.
In his daily press briefing, he said: “Since the beginning of the year there have been more than 14,000 reported cases and 511 deaths reported, this is more than all of last year.
“In the past month, more than 50 confirmed or suspected cases have been reported in four previously unaffected countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda.”
Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme Dr Michael Ryan last month reassured that containing the virus, if necessary, would be “relatively straightforward.”
Dr Ryan said: “This should be a relatively straightforward disease to control through classic public health measures and interventions, especially for those with access to vaccines.”
He noted, however, that governments should invest in prevention now to ensure their countries are properly prepared in the event of a monkeypox outbreak.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, reiterated the importance of working on containing the virus before it spread wider.
Dr Van Kerkhove said: “If I am cynical, we can see what happened when we saw cases across Europe and only then the world started paying attention.”
Monkeypox has an estimated fatality rate of 3.6% and is particularly dangerous for children under 15, who account for 88% of deaths.
Previously, monkeypox had been confined to occasional outbreaks in central and West Africa, arising from human contact with infected wildlife.
The WHO last declared a monkeypox outbreak a PHEIC in the summer of 2022, when multiple cases were reported in Europe.
The disease spreads through close contact with infected individuals, including during sexual intercourse. Common symptoms include a skin rash or mucosal lesions lasting two to four weeks, accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes