The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an outbreak of the monkeypox viral infection, which is spread by close contact, a global health emergency for the second time in two years.
The text of the Reuters agency explains what this means.
What is monkeypox?
Monkey pox is a viral infection that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and while it's usually mild, it can kill.
Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, have a higher risk of complications.
The WHO recently declared the outbreak a public health emergency after a new outbreak of the virus, first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo, began to spread to other neighboring countries.
Monkeypox is transmitted through close physical contact, including sexual contact, but there is no evidence that it is easily spread through the air.
The new outbreak has caused global alarm because it appears to spread more easily among people.
What is a global health emergency?
A "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" or PHEIC is the WHO's highest form of alert.
It is published when diseases spread in new or unusual ways, and aims to encourage international cooperation and funding to fight the epidemic.
The WHO declaration follows a similar designation by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week.
Why an emergency again
Two years ago, the WHO declared monkeypox an emergency when the form of the disease began to spread globally, mostly among men who have sex with men.
That epidemic was brought under control after behavioral changes and safe sex practices, plus vaccines, helped vulnerable people protect themselves in many countries.
But monkeypox has been a public health problem in parts of Africa for decades.
The first human case was in the Congo in 1970, and there have been epidemics since then.
The current outbreak, the worst ever in Congo, has recorded 27.000 cases and more than 1.100 deaths since January 2023, mostly among children.
Two strains are now spreading in the Congo - an endemic form of the virus and a new offshoot.
The new offshoot has now moved from eastern Congo into Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Kenya.
On Thursday, Sweden reported the first case of the new form outside of Africa.
On Friday, Pakistan also confirmed a case of the virus in a patient who had returned from the Gulf country, although it was not clear whether it was a new variant or one that has been spreading globally since 2022.
What is happening now?
Scientists hope the emergency declaration will speed up efforts to get more medical supplies and resources to Congo to help authorities there fight the epidemic.
Better surveillance is needed to study the virus and help stop its spread.
But in 2022, the WHO's appeal for $34 million to fight monkeypox was not accepted by donors, and there was a huge disparity in who had access to doses of the vaccine.
African countries did not have access to the two vaccines used in the global epidemic, made by the companies Bavarian Nordic and KM Biologics.
Two years later, that remains the case, although there are efforts to change that, the WHO said on Wednesday, appealing for donations of doses from countries with stockpiles. The African CDC said it has a plan to provide doses, without elaborating further, but supplies are currently limited.
How worried should you be?
Mortality rates vary and largely depend on the health care available to the sickest patients.
In the Congo in this epidemic, the rate in both types of virus was about four percent. The kind that spread globally was much less lethal. However, monkeypox is not Covid-19.
There are tools that have been proven to work to stop the spread and help those at risk, and it doesn't spread that easily.
The challenge now, which the emergency declarations aim to highlight, is to ensure that these tools reach those who need them most, in Congo and neighboring countries.
Bonus video:
