WHO Director-General Tedros Adanom Gebreyesus said the sudden outbreak of monkeypox in many countries around the world shows that the virus has been spreading undetected for some time outside of West and Central Africa, where it is common.
The virus may have been transmitted undetected for months or years, although investigations are ongoing and there are still no clear answers, according to Dr. Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical director for the fight against monkeypox.
“In fact, we don’t know if it’s too late to limit. “What the WHO and all member states are trying to do is prevent further spread,” Lewis told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday. Tracking contacts and isolating patients with monkeypox is crucial to stopping the spread, she said.
Tedros said most of the cases were reported by men who sought care in sexual health clinics after having sex with other men and developed symptoms. He stressed that anyone can get monkeypox through close physical contact, warned against stigmatizing people and called on countries to step up surveillance to identify cases among the general population.
Symptoms of monkeypox usually go away on their own, Tedros said, although the disease can be severe in some cases. No deaths have been reported from current outbreaks in North America and Europe. However, smallpox has not yet spread to more vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children in those regions, said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical director of WHO Covid-19.
Monkeypox usually begins with flu-like symptoms, including fever, headache, muscle aches, chills, exhaustion, and swollen lymph nodes. Infectious lesions then form on the body.
Monkeypox is spread mainly through prolonged skin-to-skin contact with these lesions. One is considered to be no longer infected once the lesions have disappeared and a new layer of skin has formed. WHO / CNBC
Add Comment