WHO wants vaccine efficacy data in monkeypox fight

The World Health Organisation appealed for vigilance to ensure monkeypox does not spread among more vulnerable groups, such as children.

Fighting the virus required "intense" efforts, said the WHO, calling for broad data collection and sharing on how well vaccines work against it.

Experts have detected a surge of monkeypox cases since early May outside of the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. Most of the new cases have been in western Europe.

"I am concerned about sustained transmission because it would suggest that the virus is establishing itself and it could move into high-risk groups including children, the immunocompromised and pregnant women," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

"We are starting to see this, with several children already infected."

There are two cases aged under 18 in Britain.

As of June 22 this year, 3,413 laboratory-confirmed cases and one death have been reported to the WHO, from 50 countries.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said that countries with stockpiles of vaccines, led by the United States, had shown willingness to share them.