On 23 July, the WHO’s Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (PhD), took the unprecedented step and declared the monkeypox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” ⁠— the highest global alert level for a disease outbreak.

Following this, and with 45 cases in Australia, Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly declared last week that monkeypox was now a “communicable disease incident of national significance”.