Update (November 28): The World Health Organization announced today that, to avoid the potential for racist and stigmatizing language, it will begin using the term “mpox” for the disease and will phase out the use of “monkeypox.”
Update (July 25): The World Health Organization held a press conference on July 23 during which the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that the monkeypox outbreak now constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. Despite the WHO’s advisory committee not reaching consensus on the matter when they met on July 21, Ghebreyesus says several of the criteria for declaring a global health emergency have been satisfied. Because there have now been 16,000 cases reported across 75 countries and territories, he says that the WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is high in Europe but moderate elsewhere, adding that there is a “clear risk of further international spread.” Because the ...
