After WHO warning, Korea girds for monkeypox

With monkeypox declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), health authorities said Sunday that they are assessing Korea's preventive measures.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a press release Sunday that it will hold a meeting next week to review countermeasures against the virus. The exact date hasn’t been confirmed yet.

The announcement came as the head of the WHO announced the spread of monkeypox to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on Saturday.

“The WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region, where we assess the risk as high,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Saturday.

The new classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue. The most recent issuance of a global health emergency was in response to Covid-19 in January 2020.

The declaration does not impose requirements on governments, but it serves as a call to action.

Korea has reported one monkeypox case. The patient, a Korean national in his 30s, arrived from Germany on June 21. After being admitted to Incheon Medical Center, he was discharged from the hospital on July 7. Since then, there have been no further monkeypox cases in the country.

In a move to step up monitoring, the fever standard for international arrivals from five countries that have multiple cases of the virus — Britain, Spain, Germany, Portugal and France — has been lowered to 37.3 from 37.5 degrees.

The KDCA said Sunday that it has signed a contract to introduce the Jynneos vaccine, a third generation vaccine approved to prevent monkeypox, for 5,000 people. A treatment for the virus called Tecovirima has been supplied to some hospitals, it added. The amount is enough for 504 patients.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]