World Health Organization

The action comes as WHO convenes its emergency committee to consider if the outbreak of monkeypox - mostly in Europe - warrants being declared a global emergency.

The World Health Organization recommended in its strongest terms yet that a deeper probe is needed into whether a lab accident may be to blame.

Symptoms that doctors were taught about in medical school are not necessarily indicative of the cases of 2022. It can be much more subtle — and look a lot like other diseases.

The agency says it received reports of at least 169 cases of “acute hepatitis of unknown origin” from a dozen countries but did not confirm where the fatality occurred.

The WHO and the Biden administration extended the public health emergency for COVID-19, saying the virus is still considered a serious health threat.

The agency cautioned countries in recent weeks against dropping COVID surveillance measures, saying that doing so would cripple efforts to accurately track the spread of the virus.

The agency says the data “should be interpreted with caution,” noting that many countries are testing far less than previously, meaning that many new cases are going undetected.

WHO said its expert group concluded that immunization provide high levels of protection against severe disease and death amid the global circulation of the omicron variant.

UNICEF and the World Health Organization issued the paper. It shows "that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive," says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of WHO.

The Western Pacific was the only region that saw an increase in COVID-19 cases, with a 29% jump, while the number of infections elsewhere dropped significantly.