AA / Geneva
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday that it had identified more than 550 confirmed cases of monkeypox in 30 countries where the disease is not endemic.
During a press conference, the secretary general of the UN organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that the majority of confirmed cases “concern men who have had homosexual relations with people who presented symptoms of the disease”.
He called the current health situation “evolving” before adding, “We expect more cases to continue to be discovered.”
The WHO chief explained that investigations are ongoing, but the sudden outbreak in multiple countries simultaneously shows there may be transmission that has gone undetected for some time.
Ghebreyesus urged affected countries to expand their surveillance, testing and tracking of cases.
Earlier today, the World Health Organization announced the diagnosis of more than 1,400 cases of monkeypox, the vast majority unconfirmed, in 7 African countries, namely, Cameroon, Central African Republic , Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Congo and Sierra Leone.
The WHO said the infections consisted of 44 confirmed cases and 1,392 suspected cases.
Symptoms of monkeypox appear as fever, swollen lymph nodes and muscle aches, with signs of fatigue, chills and a rash, similar to chickenpox, on the hands and the face, soles of the feet, genitals and other parts of the body.
Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958, when a disease similar to smallpox appeared in laboratory monkeys, hence the name of the disease.
* Translated from Arabic by Mounir Bennour.
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