CODX - Monkeypox cases exceed 6000 as WHO sets another emergency meeting

The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to reconvene a meeting of its advisors this month to decide whether the monkeypox constitutes a global health emergency after reporting more than 8,000 cases from 58 countries in the current outbreak.

"I continue to be concerned by the scale and spread of the virus across the world," the Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference from Geneva. Citing about 80% of cases in Europe, Tedros said that the many more infections are likely going unreported due to lack of testing.

An advisory committee of the UN agency is scheduled to meet in the week starting July 18 or sooner to determine if the current outbreak amounts to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), WHO’s highest level of warning, previously issued for COVID-19 and Ebola.

Vaccine developers for monkeypox: Bavarian Nordic ( OTCPK:BVNKF ) ( OTCPK:BVNRY ), Emergent BioSolutions ( EBS ), Chimerix ( CMRX ).

Developers of monkeypox therapeutics: GeoVax Labs ( GOVX ), SIGA Technologies ( NASDAQ: SIGA ) and Tonix Pharmaceuticals ( TNXP ).

Developers of diagnostics for monkeypox: Co-Diagnostics ( CODX ), Roche ( OTCQX:RHHBY ) ( OTCQX:RHHBF ), Abbott Laboratories ( ABT )

Read: In a previous meeting last month, WHO’s Emergency Committee declined to issue the PHEIC designation for the current monkeypox outbreak.

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