Today, Monday, the World Health Organization received reports confirming 257 cases of monkeypox in 23 countries so far, confirming the presence of about 120 suspected cases in those countries.
And the organization stated – according to what was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States of America, as reported by the American (Al-Hurra) channel – that there are 12 cases of monkeypox in 8 states.
And the World Health Organization added that “five African countries are common in monkeypox,” confirming that they had received reports of 1,365 cases of infection and 69 deaths due to the virus, and noted that these diseases were reported in different periods ranging from mid-December to late May. .
She explained that since 2017, the few deaths of people with monkeypox in West Africa have been associated with young age or untreated HIV infection, noting that the level of global public health risk is moderate “considering that this is the first time that it has been reported WHO reports simultaneous cases and groups of monkeypox in widely divergent geographic regions, with no known epidemiological links to non-endemic countries in West or Central Africa.
In her update, she also noted that the public health risk could become high if this virus took the opportunity to establish itself as a human disease and spread to the most vulnerable groups, such as young children and people with weakened immunity.
It is worth noting that monkeypox is a very rare viral disease similar to human smallpox, but it is considered clinically less serious, and the disease eventually develops into a rash.. This can occur all over the body, and the disease usually lasts from two to four weeks.