Home » World » The US and Germany will arm monkeys against smallpox

The US and Germany will arm monkeys against smallpox

There have been five cases of the disease in Germany. All the patients are men and have been reported by authorities in Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Württemberg and Berlin. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the virus poses little risk to the population. “The disease is not easily transmitted,” his boss Lothar Wieler said, according to RFI.

The French health office HAS on Tuesday recommended that all people who were in close contact with patients with chickenpox receive the vaccine.

In the United States, monkeypox is considered a less dangerous relative of eradicated smallpox, and has so far been confirmed in a patient in Massachusetts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday that it registered 131 confirmed cases and 106 suspected cases in two dozen countries, including the Czech Republic.

These are countries where smallpox is not common. According to Delo, Slovenia also joined them on Tuesday. The disease was detected there in a man who returned from the Canary Islands.

An epidemic in parallel with the covid

The US CDC has reported that the US now has about a thousand doses of Jynneos vaccine, which is approved against both monkeys and smallpox.

“Stocks are expected to grow very fast in the coming days,” said Jennifer McQuistonn of the Dangerous Pathogens Department, according to CNN. According to her, the candidates for vaccination are close to those infected or medical staff, “especially those who are at high risk of a serious illness.”

Smallpox was first reported in humans in the 1970s in Congo.

Africa has dealt with the latest wave of the epidemic during the covid epidemic, when the world’s attention was turned elsewhere,” said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the African CDC.

Nevertheless, according to France, 24 expressed concern about the current cases of the disease in Europe and the USA. “If smallpox comes so far from wooded areas, it raises many questions. It would be very useful to share information about the source of this disease, “he said.

An African affair

Smallpox usually occurs in Central and West Africa.
Experts do not yet anticipate their rapid spread, such as covid, partly because transmission requires closer contact with the infected.
The World Health Organization claims that the spread of monkeypox can be “controlled” outside Africa.

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