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Is monkeypox going to be next pandemic? Know what WHO said in emergency meeting

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monkeypox to be a global emergency would mean the UN health agency considers the outbreak to be an “extraordinary event" and that the disease is at risk of spreading across even more borders, possibly requiring a global response.

Some experts have said that WHO's decision to act only after the disease spilled into the West could entrench the grotesque inequities that arose between rich and poor countries during the coronavirus pandemic. “If WHO was really worried about monkeypox spread, they could have convened their emergency committee years ago when it reemerged in Nigeria in 2017 and no one knew why we suddenly had hundreds of cases," said Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist who sits on several WHO advisory groups. “It is a bit curious that WHO only called their experts when the disease showed up in white countries," he said.

David Fidler, a senior fellow in global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the WHO's newfound attention to monkeypox amid its spread beyond Africa could inadvertently worsen the divide between rich and poor countries seen during COVID-19. “There may be legitimate reasons why WHO only raised the alarm when monkeypox spread to rich countries, but to poor countries, that looks like a double standard," Fidler said.

So far, Europe has reported more than 80% of the cases while Africa has already seen more than 1,400 cases this year, including 62 deaths.

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