World Health Network declares monkeypox a pandemic

The current monkeypox outbreak, which has infected 3,417 people across 42 countries, has on Thursday been declared a pandemic by World Health Network (WHN), a global collaboration of scientific and citizen teams.

The declaration comes ahead of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) meeting on Thursday, to decide on their monkeypox outbreak designation.A

Citing Monkeypoxmeter, a website which tracks the infection cases in real time, the WHN said there are now 3,417 confirmed monkeypox cases reported across 58 countries, and the outbreak is rapidly expanding across multiple continents.

The WHN has urged immediate action by the WHO and national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention organisations to prevent monkeypox becoming a disaster.