World Health Organization (WHO) has declared monkeypox a global health emergency 5/5 (4)

World Health Organization (WHO) has declared monkeypox a global health emergency. It came at the end of the second meeting of the WHO'S emergency committee on the virus.

The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and follows a worldwide upsurge in cases.

WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries. There have been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak.

There are only two other such health emergencies at present - the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.