COPENHAGEN, June 15, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The World Health Organization (WHO)
said Wednesday Europe remained the epicentre of the global monkeypox
outbreak, which posed a "real risk" with more than 1,500 cases reported in
the region.
The UN health body already announced on Tuesday that it would hold an
emergency meeting next week to determine whether to classify the outbreak as
a public health emergency of international concern.
"Europe remains the epicentre of this escalating outbreak with 25 countries
reporting more than 1,500 cases, or 85 percent of the global total," Hans
Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a press conference Wednesday.
WHO's European region comprises 53 countries, including several in Central
Asia.
"The magnitude of this outbreak poses a real risk. The longer the virus
circulates, the more it will extend its reach, and the stronger the disease's
foothold will get in non-endemic countries," Kluge said.
Until the past few months, monkeypox had generally been confined to Western
and Central Africa.
Kluge said that the majority of cases reported in Europe "have been among men
who have sex with men", but also warned against stigmatisation.
He stressed "that the monkeypox virus is not in itself attached to any
specific group."
The regional director also warned that the risk was increasing as summer had
arrived with "tourism, various Pride events, music festivals and other mass
gatherings planned across the region."
"These events are powerful opportunities to engage with young, sexually
active and highly mobile people," Kluge said, but stressed that "monkeypox is
not a reason to cancel events, but an opportunity to leverage them to drive
our engagement."
Speaking next to Kluge, Steve Taylor, director of European Pride Organisers
Association, said that some 750 Pride events were planned across the European
region and welcomed the WHO's recommendation not to cancel these events.
"Sadly, but entirely predictably, some of those who oppose Pride and who
oppose equality and human rights have already been attempting to use
monkeypox as a justification for calls for Pride to be banned," Taylor told
reporters.
The EU announced Tuesday that it had purchased almost 110,000 vaccine doses
to help tackle the outbreak, though the WHO does not recommend mass
vaccination against monkeypox.