LOMBOK WARNINGS – The World Health Organization says it expects to identify more cases monkey pox while expanding surveillance in countries where the disease is not normally found.
As of Saturday, May 21, 2022, there have been 92 confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases monkey pox has been reported from 12 member countries that are not endemic to the virus, said WHO.
WHO will provide further guidance and recommendations in the coming days to countries on how to reduce it and the spread monkey pox.
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“Available information indicates that human-to-human transmission occurs among people who have close physical contact with symptomatic cases”, say WHO.
Monkeypox is an infectious disease that is usually mild, and is endemic in western and central Africa.
This type of disease is spread through close contact, so it is relatively easy to control through measures such as self-isolation and hygiene.
“What appears to be happening now is that it has entered the population as a sexual form, as a genital form, and spread like a sexually transmitted infection, which has amplified its transmission worldwide.” said the official WHO David Heymann, a disease specialist told Reuters.
Heymann said an international committee of experts met via videoconference to see what needed to be learned about the outbreak and communicated to the public.
This includes whether there is asymptomatic spread, who is most at risk, and what the route of transmission is.
He said the meeting was held “because of the urgency of the situation”.
The Committee is not the group that would suggest declaring a public health emergency of international concern, the highest form of vigilance WHOwhich applies to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said close contact was the main route of transmission, as the typical lesions of the disease are highly contagious.
For example, parents caring for sick children are at risk, as are healthcare workers, which is why some countries are starting to inoculate teams that treat patients. monkey pox using the smallpox vaccine, a related virus.
Many of the current cases have been identified in sexual health clinics.
Preliminary genomic sequences from several cases in Europe have shown similarities to strains that spread limitedly in the UK, Israel and Singapore in 2018.
Heymann said it was “biologically plausible” the virus had circulated outside endemic countries, but had not caused major outbreaks as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, social distancing and travel restrictions.
Plague monkey pox does not resemble the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic because it is not easily transmitted.
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