Cape Town – The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it will convene an emergency meeting after more than 6 000 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in 58 countries.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual press conference from Geneva that the agency will reconvene a meeting of the committee to advise on whether it should declare the outbreak a global health emergency, and WHO’s highest level of alert.
“I continue to be concerned by the scale and spread of the virus across the world,” Tedros said.
“Europe is currently the epicentre of the outbreak, and I plan to reconvene the emergency committee so they are updated on the current epidemiology and evolution of the outbreak, and implementation of counter measures,” he said.
Tedros said the lack of testing meant there’s a high chance of many more cases going unreported, and noted about 80% of cases are in Europe.
Meanwhile, Ecuador’s health ministry as well as Singapore and the Dominican Republic confirmed on Wednesday their first cases of monkeypox.
In the US, officials have doubled their testing capacity after the Laboratory Corporation of America (Labcorp) opened its largest testing facility in the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a press release on Wednesday.
"Starting today, Labcorp will begin testing for monkeypox using CDC’s orthopoxvirus test (which detects all non-smallpox related orthopoxviruses, including monkeypox)," the release said.
"Labcorp will offer this testing at its largest facility in the US and will be able to accept specimens from anywhere in the country."
Sputnik News reported that Labcorp will be able to complete up to 10 000 tests per week, doubling the capacity provided by the CDC’s Laboratory Response Network.
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