From the Reports Department Abu Dhabi, May 23 / WAM/ With the number of recorded cases of monkey pox approaching the 100-infection barrier in countries where the disease is not endemic, many health organizations around the world have started extensive investigation campaigns to monitor the first cases in them in anticipation of the disease not turning into a new epidemic regardless Regardless of its severity.
As of May 21, the World Health Organization had recorded 92 laboratory-confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases from 12 non-endemic countries.
And the World Organization warned that shyness in reporting the disease may cause confusion in the investigation efforts of the epidemic, justifying this by linking the infection with some ethical and behavioral practices, and said: Everyone is exposed to the disease and cannot be considered a limited disease.
International health organizations believe that the fear of announcing the infection may cause the investigation campaigns to fail at the beginning of the infection, which may constitute a major breach in thwarting the confrontation of the disease at its inception.
The spread of the virus re-emphasized the urgent need to strengthen epidemic prevention and support early response after the Covid-19 virus caused uneven disruption in the world for more than two years.
In the UAE, the Ministry of Health and Community Protection confirmed the readiness of the health sector in the country to deal with monkeypox, which has spread in many countries around the world.
The ministry said that it took the initiative to study and assess the risk of the epidemic locally according to the volume of international travel, stressing that it had issued a circular to medical staff to work on discovering cases and reporting them to health authorities.
The ministry stated that “the technical advisory team for pandemic control has prepared a guide for surveillance, early detection, management of clinically infected cases, and precautionary measures.”
The Ministry called on the residents of the country to obtain information from its official sources and not to “circulate rumors and false information”, in addition to the importance of following up on developments and instructions issued by the concerned health authorities.
For its part, the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi called on all health facilities operating in the emirate to investigate monkeypox disease, and to report any suspected, potential or confirmed case through the electronic reporting system for communicable diseases.
In turn, the Dubai Health Authority issued a circular to all health professionals and health facilities operating within the authority’s jurisdiction to enhance the epidemiological investigation of the emerging monkeypox disease, which has spread in a number of countries.
The World Health Organization said last weekend that as the situation evolves and surveillance expands, it is expected that more monkeypox cases will be identified.
The organization explained that monkeypox is a rare viral disease of zoonotic origin, the virus of which is transmitted from animals to humans, and the symptoms of human infection are similar to those witnessed in the past by patients with smallpox, but it is less severe.
According to the World Health Organization, “infection with the disease from indicative cases results from direct contact with the blood of infected animals, their body fluids, their skin lesions, or their mucous fluids.”
Global health reports have unanimously agreed on a set of symptoms for monkeypox virus, which are fever, severe headache, muscle pain, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, and rash. The rash usually begins within one to three days from the onset of fever, and symptoms last between two to four weeks and disappear from their own.