The World Health Organization said on the 15th that the multi-national monkeypox epidemic still constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern". In July last year, WHO announced that the monkeypox epidemic spread in many countries around the world constituted a "public health emergency of international concern", which is the highest level alert that WHO can issue at present. In a statement released on the 15th, the WHO expert committee believed that the global response to monkeypox had made progress, and the number of cases reported globally in the past few months had further declined. However, cases continue to occur in a few countries, and there may be insufficient reports of detected and confirmed cases in other regions. Therefore, both the Expert Committee and WHO Director-General Tan Desai believe that the multi-national monkeypox epidemic still constitutes "a public health emergency of international concern". According to the assessment of WHO, the overall risk of monkeypox epidemic in the world is still intermediate at present. Among the six regions of the world divided by WHO, the risk in the Americas, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa is still intermediate, the risk in Southeast Asia is from intermediate to low, and the risk in the Western Pacific is still low. In this monkeypox epidemic, more cases of monkeypox were reported in the Americas and Europe. The WHO statement shows that the number of new cases reported in the Americas has remained stable in the past six weeks, and 43 countries and regions in Europe have not reported new cases in the three months ended February 3. To help coordinate public health actions, WHO launched the monkeypox epidemic preparedness and response plan in July last year, which will end in June this year. However, WHO said that relevant resources would still be mobilized through other channels. (Xinhua News Agency)