Monkey pox | The WHO will indicate on Saturday if the highest level of alert is triggered

(Geneva) Faced with the outbreak of monkeypox, the director general of the WHO must announce on Saturday whether he has chosen to trigger the organization’s highest level of alert or not.

The D^r Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will give a virtual press conference at 1 p.m. GMT this Saturday, July 23, said a press release from the UN organization issued Friday evening.

Other guests at this point will be announced at a later date, according to the statement.

The press release does not specify the nature of the announcement of the D^r Tedros as cases of monkeypox now strike more than 15,800 people in 72 countries, according to the US CDC dashboard as of July 20.

It is the boss of the WHO who is responsible for possibly declaring a public health emergency of international concern, the highest level of alert of the health agency, on the basis of the recommendations of the Committee of ’emergency.

This panel of experts met Thursday in Geneva and by videoconference for seven hours.

The Emergency Committee assessed epidemiological indicators to determine the best ways to contain a health situation that has worsened in recent weeks.

At a first meeting on June 23, the majority of experts had recommended to D^r Tedros not to pronounce the public health emergency of international concern.

Detected in early May, the unusual upsurge in monkeypox cases outside central and west African countries where the virus is endemic has since spread across the globe, with Europe as its epicenter.

First detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than its cousin smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.

In most cases, the patients are men who have sex with men, relatively young, and living mainly in cities, according to the WHO.

A study published Thursday in the scientific journal New England Journal of Medicinethe largest on the subject and based on data from 16 different countries, confirms that the vast majority – 95% – of recent cases were transmitted through sexual contact and that 98% of those affected were gay men. or bisexual.