The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday in a press conference that the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries qualifies as a "public health emergency of international concern."

The WHO chief is said to have made the decision unilaterally despite a lack of consensus among experts on the United Nations health agency's emergency committee.

The label of a "public health emergency of international concern" is WHO's highest level of alert.

Such an announcement would allow the WHO to actively fund research on the disease and take international health steps.

Similar declarations were made for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, in addition to the ongoing effort to eradicate polio and the COVID-19 pandemic.