WHO declares monkeypox a global health emergency as infection count rises

The World Health Organization on Saturday has declared monkeypox a global health emergency as the disease has spread to dozens of countries in a few weeks and infected thousands of people.

" 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," said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

According to WHO, monkeypox is a viral zoonotic infection caused by the monkeypox virus. It spreads mostly from human contact.

On Friday, India reported its third case of monkeypox in Kerala's Malappuram district.

A 35-year-old man contracted the infection and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital where he was admitted for fever after returning from UAE on July 6, Kerala health minister Veena George said.

The southern state on July 19 started Monkeypox testing at NIV Alapuzha.

The multidisciplinary central team of officials has been already deployed by the Union Health Ministry.

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rochelle Walensky on Saturday said the US may see more cases of monkeypox before the numbers go down.

"With the scale-up of testing, with the scale-up of information, we anticipate that there will be more cases before there are less," Xinhua news agency quoted Walensky as saying to The Washington Post.

The CDC currently does not have specific projections on how serious the situation may be, Walensky added.