Yesterday it was announced the World Health Organization has officially declared the “monkeypox outbreak” a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Following their second emergency meeting on monkeypox in less than a month, WHO Director-General Thedros Adhanom told the press:
In short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations […] For all of these reasons I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency of international concern.”
For anyone living under a rock for the past two years, a PHEIC is defined as:
an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response”
It is the highest alert WHO can issue, and grants them legal authority to issue travel warnings or restrictions, inspect and critique the public health measures of member states and other things of that nature.
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