More On: monkeypox
UK officials say that the number of monkeypox cases may have reached its peak
Monkeypox to be Declared a Public Health Emergency by the Biden Administration
WH Response to Criticism of Monkeypox Response Delay: We 'Met the Moment'
California declares monkeypox state of emergency
China anticipates a profit from the sale of monkeypox test kits
The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) recently decided to declare monkeypox a 'public health emergency,' and diagnostic test manufacturers in China anticipate significant financial gain as a result. The W.H.O. requested mass orders of monkeypox testing kits from at least two such manufacturers shortly after the declaration, according to Tuesday's report in China's state-run Global Times.
The publication asserted that within hours of the World Health Organization's announcement on July 23 that it now views a global monkeypox outbreak as posing "a public health emergency of international concern," at least two Chinese diagnostic test manufacturers—Liferiver of Shanghai and Jiangsu Bioperfectus Technologies of Taizhou—had received sizable orders for monkeypox testing kits.
The latest order for monkeypox testing kits from Liferiver "came virtually at the same time as the WHO proclaimed the health emergency," a manager with the company with the last name Wang told the Global Times on Tuesday (July 26).
“Liferiver […] received an urgent order for monkeypox nucleic acid detection reagents from the WHO, and the products will be supplied to 17 African countries including Angola, Algeria, Ethiopia and Kenya,” the Global Times detailed.
In addition, the newspaper reported that Jiangsu Bioperfectus Technologies, a different diagnostic test producer based in Taizhou, eastern China, "received an order from the WHO" for monkeypox testing kits soon after the U.N. public health organization's July 23 notification regarding the disease.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, disobeyed a group of W.H.O. medical experts and proclaimed monkeypox a "public health emergency" on July 23 even though he had previously stated that the disease only posed a "moderate" threat of spreading globally. As of July 23, the World Health Organization reported finding over 16,000 cases of monkeypox in 75 nations and territories, along with five related fatalities. Around the beginning of May, the sickness started to spread globally.
The monkeypox virus, which the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) refers to as a "virus transferred to people from animals," is the infectious disease that causes monkeypox.
“Monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and monkeypox is rarely fatal,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“While a vaccine has been approved for prevention of monkeypox, and traditional smallpox vaccine also provides protection, these vaccines are not widely available and populations worldwide under the age of 40 or 50 years no longer benefit from the protection afforded by prior smallpox vaccination programmes,” the W.H.O. noted on May 16.
==========
