“The declaration of a public health emergency event of international importance is a technical fact. If an emerging infectious disease crosses the borders of several states, the World Health Organization is required to intervene with coordination actions. For example by imposing the reporting mandatory case “. The epidemiologist Pier Luigi Lopalco, professor of Hygiene at the University of Salento, explains this to Adnkronos Health about the possibility that the WHO classifies monkeypox as an international emergency. “In any case, there are criteria for declaring an international emergency, technically defined with the acronym Pheic, and that is what the WHO adheres to”. As for the hypothesis of re-proposing the vaccine against smallpox, according to Lopalco “extensive vaccination makes no sense. The availability of the vaccine can only be useful in cases in which there has been a probable exposure to a confirmed case”.