Monkeypox declared global health emergency by WHO as cases surge

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/23/monkeypox-who-declares-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern

by jasonhansel • 4 years ago

117 56 4 years ago

yosito• 4 years ago

According to the CDC:

Infections with the type of monkeypox virus identified in this outbreak ... are rarely fatal. Over 99% of people who get this form of the disease are likely to survive. However, people with ... a history of eczema ... may be more likely to ... die.

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/faq.html

I feel simultaneous relief and terror. While I do feel that the eczema part I've highlighted is probably some standard language around risk to people with immune conditions, I do wonder how much of a higher risk eczema poses in cases like this.

ZoomerCretin2• 4 years ago

Monkeypox is a disease that is deadlier for children than adults. It's estimated to kill 15% of children.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478203/

HL33tibCe7• 4 years ago

Depends on which strain. The strain in this outbreak appears mild.

valbaca• 4 years ago

Wow, thank you for pointing this out. I have eczema and would've never though it would increase my risk against *Monkeypox*. Wild, but glad I'm better informed.

amluto• 4 years ago

Eczema appears to be a major risk factor for serious complications from the standard smallpox vaccines. Presumably this is related.

Bjorkbat• 4 years ago

I'm less worried about fatality and more worried about long-term health consequences.

COVID worries me, but not because it might kill me. I'm more worried about long-term brain fog and respiratory problems. I'm more worried about being permanently disabled. I'm worried about having to life a kind of life where I feel like I'm substantially less than I once was.

But back to the point, I'm curious what the odds are of getting monkeypox and never quite fully recovering from it.

nikolay• 4 years ago

The thing that worries me about COVID-19 is the accumulative effect, too. It's a highly-contagious diseases, i.e. without measures you're gonna have it repeatedly, i.e. several times per year, it spreads so fast, it mutates so fast, and each time you go thru it results into a lasting damage, which over several infections, could turn debilitating or fatal. I puzzle how much people misunderstand it and still compare it to the flu!

The same could be with monkeypox, which I think would scare people more due to the possible scarring - people only care about things they can see! They can't see the brain/kidney/heart damage, so, they totally ignore it! But, man, these boils are terrifying and the scars would be terrifying, too, so, I expect people to take it way more seriously than COVID-9!

anjel2• 4 years ago

See also subsequent reemergence, similar to Shingles. Herpes infections are forever hiding from your immune system among the neurons.

alexnewman• 4 years ago

What’s the r0

dan-robertson3• 4 years ago

Historically it was about 1. Presumably it has been a little larger with this outbreak.

gardnr• 4 years ago

“For all of these reasons I have decided

Interesting that he chose "I" over "we". I wonder if there was internal dissent during the forming of the resolution.

M2Ys4U• 4 years ago

It's because the International Health Regulations confer the power to declare a PHEIC on the WHO's Director General alone, rather than the WHO as a whole (or any Emergency Committee established under it).

echopom• 4 years ago

I wish there was more accountability for International Institution.

Saying "WHO Director Declare X" is obviously more accountable than "WHO said X must do Y" with a shadow comity deciding for 7 billion people and claiming it's not their fault when they are wrong...

sto_hristo• 4 years ago

I wonder, is public WCs (like in the office) a potent vector for this disease?

xwdv• 4 years ago

I’m skeptical. I feel after agencies declare global health emergencies such as for COVID, they become more willing to declare another one for something not as severe. I see no cause for alarm until I actually hear of local cases.

UIUC_06• 4 years ago

I do know a few people who've had COVID. I don't know a single one, not even a FOAF, who's had MP.

Does anyone?

lazide• 4 years ago

They’re declaring it an emergency so you don’t know folks next month who’ve had it. That’s the point?

ornornor• 4 years ago

Didn’t everyone say that when Covid started? Now you’d be hard press to find someone who doesn’t know someone who had it (or had it themselves)

thinkingemote• 4 years ago

I think when it (lockdown, not the initial spread) started everyone knew a friend of a friend who heard about someone with it. Degrees of connection.

Indeed there were posts on this forum in the early days about it with first hand accounts. No such accounts with this so far?

Personally, a school friend was one of the first cases in the country.

kredd• 4 years ago

If you have any friends in queer community, ask them and you’ll find a plenty data points.

teen• 4 years ago

I think I have it now. Not 100% sure though.

Ekaros• 4 years ago

Time to lock up again. Can't let it to start to spread. We must learn from Covid.

dan-robertson3• 4 years ago

Note that the WHO has declared 7 of this specific category of emergency since it was defined 2009[1], so a little more frequently than every other year. Likely only one of those emergencies significantly affected most people in developed countries. I’m not in a high risk group and I personally won’t change my behaviour because of this, just as I didn’t for Ebola or Polio.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Health_Emergency_of_I...

judge2020• 4 years ago

Is it hard to believe that the WHO declaring something a global health emergency might be the direct cause of reduced infections/spread of these diseases?

kbelder• 4 years ago

Well, yes.

magicalist• 4 years ago

Note that the WHO has declared 7 of this specific category of emergency since it was defined 2009

I too read the second sentence in this article.

Likely only one of those emergencies significantly affected most people in developed countries. I’m not in a high risk group and I personally won’t change my behaviour because of this, just as I didn’t for Ebola or Polio.

This declaration isn't calling for you to change your behavior. On the contrary, it's for international health communities to start coordinating before the disease has a chance to become widespread so that you can continue with your unchanged behavior.

dan-robertson3• 4 years ago

I thought it was a pretty important sentence.

Mainly I wanted to balance out the comments on this thread a bit as there were many which seemed overly cautious/mildly alarmist and there were too many comparisons to covid which is not particularly similar except for being a virus and causing one of these declarations.

bobongo• 4 years ago

I’m not in a high risk group and I personally won’t change my behaviour because of this, just as I didn’t for Ebola or Polio.

That's irrelevant.

msie• 4 years ago

I would hope that the spread would slow down by now with more news and education about how it spread but no dice. Sigh...

staticassertion3• 4 years ago

Once again not caring about spending time with people in person turns out to be the ultimate survival life hack.

kbos87• 4 years ago

I don’t know, social isolation also carries some pretty substantial risks -

https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/social-isolation-loneliness-old....

staticassertion3• 4 years ago

Dr. Cacioppo’s research found that being alone and loneliness are different but related. Social isolation is the objective physical separation from other people (living alone), while loneliness is the subjective distressed feeling of being alone or separated. It’s possible to feel lonely while among other people, and you can be alone yet not feel lonely.

Alone but not lonely, life hacked.

thedrbrian• 4 years ago

As long as you don’t have anal sex with them you can meet up with whoever you like https://www.eugyppius.com/p/urgent-monkeypox-alert-some-new-...

staticassertion3• 4 years ago

Defeats the purpose of meeting up with them then

Tainnor• 4 years ago

Monkeypox is transmitted via close and extended contact, that's not limited to anal sex by any stretch of the imagination.

justinzollars• 4 years ago

The director-general noted that the WHO's Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulation was "unable to reach a consensus" on whether to make the declaration itself (he actually over-ruled the committee which voted 9 to 6 against the declaration), compelling Tedros to make the declaration on his own.

password54321• 4 years ago

Seems to be mainly affecting the LGBTQ+ community.

mensetmanusman• 4 years ago

Which in the U.S. would be perceived to be quite a major issue:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/147824/adults-estimate-american...

(This is one of my favorite stats.)

ed25519FUUU• 4 years ago

No doubt due to the fact that LGBTQ characters are dramatically over-represented in US media.

TMWNN• 4 years ago

Likely because of significant overrepresentation in today's media/news.

For similar reasons, Americans consistently overestimate blacks and Hispanics' share of the US population. They estimate on average that 33% are black and 29% Hispanic when the true figure is less than 13% for each. <https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/3ncaz8/til_th...>

DIARRHEA_xd• 4 years ago

Mostly the G community

lujim• 4 years ago

Just because covid turned out to be a global disaster doesn't mean everything will be. There were multiple SARS outbreaks in the ever so pleasant 2000's. Oh Ebola might have gone airborne in the 90's and has made some cameos since then.

We all dropped the ball on covid, but that doesn't mean everything is going to get the same foothold. I guess what I'm saying is that I will wash my groceries again if something crazy shows up but let's not assume global pandemics are just going to kick off constantly.

Monkeypox declared global health emergency by WHO as cases surge

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