Russia will provide Uzbekistan with mpox test kits produced by the Vector Scientific Center, the press service of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) said.

Extraordinary meeting of the Council of Heads of Authorized Bodies in the Field of Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare of the Population of the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) took place on August 26 at the initiative of Rospotrebnadzor.

The meeting was attended by the chief state sanitary doctors of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The chiefs of sanitary and epidemiological welfare authorities of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were also invited to attend.

The participants discussed the situation related to the declaration of an international emergency for monkeypox by WHO. According to the council members, the risk of monkeypox spreading in the EAEU member countries, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is assessed as low.

All countries of the Eurasian region have adopted safety measures at the border.

"The partners asked the Russian authorities to provide monkeypox test systems developed by the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution of Science, the Vector Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology of Rospotrebnadzor. The first sets of test systems will be delivered to Uzbekistan this week," the statement said.

The World Health Organization has declared the monkeypox epidemic in Africa a public health emergency.

This is the second time in two years that WHO has declared monkeypox a public health emergency. The first global outbreak was recorded in 2022-2023 - then it was caused by a strain known as clade IIb. The current outbreak was caused by a clade Ib strain, which kills up to 10% of those infected.