Government to Assess Monkeypox Crisis Situation... Meeting Scheduled for Next Week

WHO Declares Monkeypox a 'Public Health Emergency' Response

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] On the 23rd (local time), the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC),' and domestic quarantine authorities have decided to hold a meeting to assess the crisis situation.

On the 24th, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced that considering the domestic and international outbreak situation and WHO's declaration of an international public health emergency, it will hold a crisis assessment meeting next week to review measures.

Earlier, WHO declared PHEIC following the results of the second Emergency Committee meeting under the International Health Regulations (IHR) regarding the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reportedly declared PHEIC unusually without unanimous approval from all members of the Emergency Committee.

PHEIC is the highest level of public health alert that WHO can issue, enabling WHO to strongly promote research, funding, and international health measures to control the disease. Previously, only two diseases?COVID-19 and poliomyelitis (polio)?were under PHEIC.

However, WHO's risk assessment of monkeypox remains the same as in the first meeting: 'high' for Europe and 'moderate' for the rest of the world excluding Europe.

Currently, monkeypox cases are mainly occurring in Europe and the Americas, with Asian countries, except the Middle East, reporting the fewest confirmed cases. According to WHO, monkeypox has been confirmed in 16,016 people across 75 countries, with 4,132 cases (about 26%) reported in the past week. At the first meeting on May 26, one case each was reported in Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea outside the Middle East in Asia. At the second meeting, a total of 11 cases were reported: six in Singapore, two in India, two in Taiwan, and one in Korea.

In response, quarantine authorities stated, "We are currently maintaining a central and local government emergency quarantine system through a multi-ministerial cooperation system led by the Central Disease Control Headquarters and regional quarantine task forces established in cities and provinces nationwide."

The authorities are implementing measures to delay the domestic inflow of monkeypox, including strengthening fever criteria, providing entry guidance through SNS and text messages to travelers, using the quarantine information pre-entry system (Q-code), and sharing travel history to monkeypox-affected countries with medical institutions.

On May 31, the monkeypox crisis alert level was raised to the 'interest' stage, and on June 8, it was designated as a second-class legal infectious disease. From June 1, the fever criterion for quarantine screening was lowered from 37.5℃ to 37.3℃ for travelers entering Korea from the top five countries with frequent monkeypox cases: the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and France, thereby strengthening quarantine surveillance.

Additionally, the authorities distributed monkeypox reagents and conducted diagnostic and testing training at 17 local government health and environment research institutes to expand the monkeypox diagnosis and testing system regionally.

A total of 504 doses of the monkeypox treatment drug Tecovirimat arrived in Korea on June 8 and have been supplied to hospitals in cities and provinces. The third-generation smallpox vaccine 'Jynneos' is expected to be introduced domestically through a supply contract for 5,000 doses with the manufacturer.

A KDCA official emphasized, "Cooperation from the public and medical community is crucial for early detection of monkeypox and preventing community spread," and urged, "Citizens visiting or traveling to monkeypox-affected countries should follow safe travel guidelines."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.