According to reports, the woman from Mohalla Jawahar Nagar in the Bidhuna Tehsil had a fever for the previous week with symptoms resembling monkeypox. A private physician was treating the patient. When she went to receive medicine from a previous medical officer because she was still suffering, the former officer observed some little spots on the woman's body.
The former medical officer called the World Health Organization (WHO) and informed them that he thought the symptoms might be those of monkeypox. The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) has also been alerted. The woman was directed to a community health centre in Bidhuna by the former medical officer. The WHO and the district's health department are reportedly working together on the matter.
The WHO had a hard time deciding whether to label monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) or not. That’s a rare designation, given to Covid-19 and a handful of other diseases such as swine flu in 2009, polio in 2014 and Ebola (twice). It carries binding legal commitments for member nations to act.
A majority of the WHO’s Emergency Committee, however, was unconvinced that monkeypox qualified. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who came under criticism for being slow to declare Covid-19 a pandemic and too deferential to China, cast the deciding vote. With a rising number of monkeypox cases around the world — some 16,000 have now been reported in 75 countries — the WHO chief clearly wanted to err on the side of caution.
The skeptics noted that the overall risk profile of monkeypox hasn’t changed in the past month, with the main burden falling on Europe and North America. They also noted that disease severity is very low (with no deaths reported in Europe or North America). A PHEIC, it was worried, could sow panic, increase demand for vaccines among those who don’t need them, or lead to stigmatization of gay and bisexual men, who seem to be most at risk.
(With agency inputs)
