Monkeypox cases have tripled in Europe in the past two weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) says, as it urges countries in the region to do more to ensure the previously rare disease does not become entrenched on the continent.

In Africa, health authorities said they were treating the expanding outbreak as an emergency, calling on rich countries to share limited supplies of vaccines to avoid equity problems seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO Europe Chief Hans Kluge said that increased efforts were needed despite the UN health agency’s decision last week that the escalating outbreak did not yet warrant being declared a global health emergency.

To date, more than 5,000 Monkeypox cases have been reported from 51 countries worldwide that don’t normally report the disease, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Kluge said the number of infections in Europe represented about 90 per cent of the global total, with 31 countries in the WHO’s European region having identified cases.

Until May, Monkeypox had never been known to cause large outbreaks beyond parts of central and west Africa, where it had been infecting people for decades, was endemic in several countries and mostly caused limited outbreaks when it jumped to people from infected wild animals. To date, there have been about 1,800 suspected Monkeypox cases in Africa, including more than 70 deaths, but only 109 have been lab-confirmed.

WHO says Monkeypox has spread to African countries where it hasn’t previously been seen, including South Africa, Ghana and Morocco.