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- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Mixed day for global stocks as market hopes for 'Santa Claus rally'
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
- Jordanian, Qatari envoys hold talks with Syria's new leader
- France's second woman premier makes surprise frontline return
- France's Macron announces fourth government of the year
- Netanyahu tells Israel parliament 'some progress' on Gaza hostage deal
- Guatemalan authorities recover minors taken by sect members
- Germany's far-right AfD holds march after Christmas market attack
- European, US markets wobble awaiting Santa rally
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- Biden commutes almost all federal death sentences
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- NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun
- France's new government to be announced Monday evening: Elysee
- London toy 'shop' window where nothing is for sale
- Volkswagen boss hails cost-cutting deal but shares fall
- Accused killer of US insurance CEO pleads not guilty to 'terrorist' murder
- Global stock markets mostly higher
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- Norwegian Haugan dazzles in men's World Cup slalom win
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- France mourns Mayotte victims amid uncertainy over government
- UK economy stagnant in third quarter in fresh setback
- Sweden says China denied request for prosecutors to probe ship linked to cut undersea cables
- African players in Europe: Salah leads Golden Boot race after brace
- Global stock markets edge higher as US inflation eases rate fears
- German far-right AfD to march in city hit by Christmas market attack
- Ireland centre Henshaw signs IRFU contract extension
- Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Hasina's family
- US probes China chip industry on 'anticompetitive' concerns
- Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Clock ticks down on France government nomination
- 'Devastated' Australian tennis star Purcell provisionally suspended for doping
WHO decides on sounding highest alarm on monkeypox
Monkeypox experts were discussing Thursday whether the World Health Organization should classify the outbreak as a global health emergency -- the highest alarm it can sound.
A second meeting of the WHO's emergency committee on the virus was being held to examine the worsening situation, with nearly 15,400 cases reported from 71 countries, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.
On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) -- the UN health agency's highest alert level.
But a majority advised the WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the situation, at that point, had not met the threshold.
The second meeting was called with case numbers rising further.
"I need your advice in assessing the immediate and mid-term public health implications," Tedros told the start of the meeting.
If the committee advises Tedros that the outbreak constitutes a PHEIC, it will propose temporary recommendations on how to better prevent and reduce the spread of the disease and manage the global public health response.
But there is no timetable for when the outcome will be made public.
- Information battle -
Ninety-eight percent of reported cases "are among men who have sex with men (MSM) -- and primarily those who have multiple recent anonymous or new partners," Rosamund Lewis, the WHO's technical lead for monkeypox, told a press conference on Wednesday.
They are typically of young age and chiefly in urban areas, according to the WHO.
Tedros said Thursday that this posed a challenge, as in some countries, "the communities affected face life-threatening discrimination".
"There is a very real concern that men who have sex with men could be stigmatised or blamed for the outbreak, making the outbreak much harder to track, and to stop," he told the meeting.
Tedros said the first committee gathering helped delineate the dynamics of the outbreak, but he remained concerned about the number of cases.
Despite an apparent declining trend in some countries, six nations reported their first cases last week.
"As the outbreak develops, it's important to assess the effectiveness of public health interventions in different settings, to better understand what works, and what doesn't," he said.
Tedros also said information coming from endemic countries in Africa was "very scant", making it hard to characterise the situation in the region and design interventions.
A viral infection resembling smallpox and first detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.
- 'Scary and exhausting' -
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said that as of Monday, 7,896 confirmed cases had been reported from 27 countries in the European Economic Area.
The worst affected were Spain (2,835), Germany (1,924), France (912), the Netherlands (656) and Portugal (515).
"Particular sexual practices are very likely to have facilitated and could further facilitate the transmission of monkeypox among MSM groups," it said.
Danish company Bavarian Nordic is the lone laboratory manufacturing a licensed vaccine against monkeypox and jabs are currently in scarce supply.
Loyce Pace, the assistant secretary for global affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said it was "very hard" for the world to handle monkeypox on top of Covid-19 and other health crises.
"I know it can be scary... and, frankly, exhausting," she told reporters at the US mission in Geneva.
However, "we know a lot more about this disease, we've been able to stop outbreaks previously and we, importantly, have medical counter-measures and other tools available".
P.Martin--AMWN