LONDON (ANTARA) – The World Health Organization (WHO) doubts that an outbreak of monkeypox outside Africa will become a pandemic, an official said on Monday.
He added it was still unclear whether an asymptomatic infected person could infect others.
More than 300 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox were reported in May. Most of the cases are in Europe.
The illness is usually mild, causes flu-like symptoms and a characteristic rash, and is spread by close contact,
The WHO is still considering whether the monkeypox outbreak will be assessed as a “Public Health Emergency of Global Concern” (PHEIC).
Such statuses, such as those assigned to COVID-19 and Ebola, would help accelerate research and funding to prevent the disease.
Asked whether the monkeypox outbreak has the potential to become a pandemic, the technical chief for monkeypox of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme Rosamund Lewis said: “We don’t know yet, but we don’t think so.”
“At this time, we are not worried about a global pandemic,” he said.
Variants of the virus in the outbreak are known to kill a small proportion of those infected, but so far there have been no reports of deaths.
The majority of cases have emerged in Europe rather than in West and Central African countries, where the virus is endemic and largely unrelated to travel.
For this reason, scientists are looking into what might explain this unusual spike in cases, even though public health authorities suspect there has been some community transmission.
A number of countries have started injecting vaccines for close contacts of confirmed cases of monkeypox.
Source: Reuters
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Translator: Asri Mayang Sari
Editor: Anton Santoso
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