Like Corona… Will smallpox turn into a global pandemic?

02:50 p.m

Saturday, August 17, 2024

Books – Ahmed Gomaa:

Dr. Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Minister of Health and Spokesman of the Ministry, revealed the possibility that the virus would cause mosaic to become a new epidemic, similar to what happened during the spread of the new Corona virus.

Abdul Ghaffar said in an awareness release, “This seems highly unlikely, as epidemics, including the latest epidemics such as swine flu and Covid-19, are usually outbreaks due to airborne viruses that spread quickly, including people who do not show symptoms. “.

The World Health Organization has previously declared “monkeypox” a global health emergency.

Abdul Ghaffar explained that the Mbox virus, also known as monkeypox, spreads mainly through close skin-to-skin contact with infected people or their dirty clothes or bed sheets, and often causes sores. visible skin that may make people more likely to have intimate contact. others.

Scientists say that the risk to the general population in countries where there are no ongoing outbreaks of “mbox” is low, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, who confirmed that the smallpox a ‘ spread very slowly, unlike the Corona virus.

He noted that shortly after the coronavirus was identified in China, the number of cases jumped dramatically from several hundred to several thousand in one week in January, and the number of cases increased by more than ten so much.

By March 2020, when the World Health Organization described COVID-19 as a pandemic, there had been more than 126,000 infections and 4,600 deaths, about three months after the coronavirus was first identified. Smallpox accounts for nearly 100,000 infections worldwide, with approximately 200 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Abdel Ghaffar emphasized that vaccines and treatments are available for smallpox, unlike in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “The world has what it needs to stop smallpox This is not the same situation we faced during Covid when there was no vaccine and no antivirals, but we need more coordination and integration at the global health level to achieve this,” stressing that the chances of the disease spreading locally in Egypt are very low.

According to Agence France-Presse, a new strain of the virus, more deadly and more widespread than previous strains, was discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in September 2023, raising fears about the spread of this virus.

Distemper is an infectious disease caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans through infected animals, and can be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact.