Anutin holds urgent meeting after WHO names monkeypox an emergency
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul called an urgent meeting with public health agencies on Sunday to discuss measures to cope with monkeypox, which has been declared a global health emergency.
Anutin said this discussion was necessary after the World Health Organisation (WHO) upgraded the recent monkeypox outbreak to the status of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Between January 1 and July 20, 14,533 probable and confirmed monkeypox cases were reported to the WHO from 72 countries. The cases included three deaths in Nigeria and two in the Central African Republic.
The PHEIC status was announced by WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday. The upgrade is aimed at triggering an international response to the outbreak. It may also unlock funding for collaboration or sharing of vaccines and treatment.
Tedros said an expert committee met on Thursday to discuss the outbreak and they were split on the decision to upgrade the outbreak, with nine members against and six for the declaration.
The WHO chief said he had to stop in to break the deadlock and declare PHEIC.
“Though I’m declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners,” Tedros said at a media briefing in Geneva on Saturday.
Anutin, meanwhile, said he will discuss preventive measures and treatment options with the directors-general of the Disease Control Department, the Medical Services Department, the Medical Sciences Department, and the Health Service Support Department as well as medical experts.
He said Thailand has been taking steps against monkeypox since May, though the first confirmed case was only found last week. Since May, he said, hospitals have been told to scan possible cases and have potential patients immediately undergo lab tests.
Thailand’s first known confirmed monkeypox patient was a 27-year-old Nigerian man who fled to Cambodia after he tested positive for monkeypox at a Phuket hospital. The man was eventually tracked down and detained in Phnom Penh on Saturday night.
