The European Commission has approved an existing smallpox vaccine for use against monkeypox after the World Health Organization declared the virus to be a global health emergency, the highest level of alarm which the WHO can issue.
Monkeypox has affected 17,000 people in 74 countries. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a committee of experts had been unable to reach a consensus, so it fell to him to decide whether to trigger the highest alert possible.