"They made a big mistake!" WHO decided that scientists did not buy it

Wen ｜ Wenlele

The World Health Organization (WHO) may have a very big ambition- "let everyone reach as high as possible healthy levels." But when a new human disease begins to spread, or a known disease appears in an unusual and threatening way, it has almost no leverage to use. However, an important decision that WHO can make is to announce the "PHEIC" (PHEIC), which gives WHO some additional powers and sounds alarm clock around the world.

According to "Science", after a closed -door meeting, WHO said on June 25 that the epidemic of the monkey acne does not constitute PHEIC. This conclusion was widely criticized by virusologists, epidemiologists and public health experts, and caused new debates about PHEIC purpose. "I think they have made a big mistake," said Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the School of Public Health, Yale University in the United States.

WHO has been criticized for PHEIC because of waiting for too long to announce the new crown pneumonia and the Ebola epidemic. "The past record of the agency showed that it" tends to take action later '. "Said Jeremy Youde, a global health researcher at the University of Minnesota, Jeremy Youde.

"At present, PHEIC conveys a message, that is, WHO is the last institution that recognizes the newly discovered epidemic." Michael Worobey, a biologist at the University of Arizona, said, "A new transmission disease is stopped worldwide from the world. The window may have been closed, but WHO has not even announced it as PHEIC. "

The WHO expert group did not fully explain why the epidemic of the monkey acne should not be listed as PHEIC. The Global Treaty "International Health Regulations" updated in 2005 defines PHEIC as "a special event that determines the international communication that constitutes public health risks to other countries and may need international coordinated response." Since May of this year, more than 4,000 cases of acne have occurred in more than 40 countries that usually do not occur, and its global communication is obviously a worrying issue. The group also said that the outbreak of the epidemic requires "international cooperation efforts".

Alexandra Phelan, a global health policy, said that there was only one standard questioning: whether the surge was "special incident". This is indeed tricky because monkey acne is a local disease in some African countries. "If it occurs only in a high -income country, it is determined that an event is 'special', which is unfair and immoral." Phelan said that WHO should not delay the announcement of PHEIC, but re -examine the fairness of these standards.

It is still a controversial issue to announce how much PHEIC has. "So far, there is no scientific evidence to indicate the influence of PHEIC," said Clare Wenham, a global health expert in London Political Economics, UK.

However, it is announced that PHEIC has made people pay attention to a pathogen. "Waiting for a few weeks before it is fully attracted to pay attention to the community communication." Phelan said that delaying may cause the epidemic to develop a large scale and make countries more likely to accumulate vaccines and other resources. YOUDE said there was no evidence to indicate that PHEIC had a negative impact in advance.

The expert group acknowledged that some members did not agree with this decision and stated that if new evidence showed that the monkey acne was spreading to other countries or new groups, or the severity of the disease increased, they would re -consider this issue. There are signs that this virus has a new animal host outside Africa, which may also need to be re -considered.

"China Science News" (2022-07-04 The first edition of the original title "Scientist questioned the decision of the WHO Monkey Acne")

Edit | Zhao Lu

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