Around 65 countries in which monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease as confirmed cases cross 15,600.

The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency, the World Health Organization‘s highest level of alert, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on July 22.

The illness, which spreads through close contact and was first found in monkeys, has rarely spread outside Africa, where it is endemic, until this year. (Reuters)