Rosamond Lewis, director of monkeypox at the World Health Organization, said there was still very little information about the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing the disease in the current outbreak of monkeypox.
Although clinical trials (randomised control trials) have not yet been conducted, cases of disease following vaccination have been reported, he said. This means that “the vaccine is not 100 percent effective.”
Limited studies in the 1980s indicated that the smallpox vaccines they used at the time offered about 85 percent protection against monkeypox. She also said that it is not really surprising to get the disease even after vaccination. Moreover, they added, it is a reminder that a vaccine is not a simple solution to this complex problem.
The first case of human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox was reported in France last week. It was reported in the medical journal The Lancet that two men who lived together in Paris contracted the disease in an Italian greyhound they kept.
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“This is the first reported case of human-to-animal transmission. “This is believed to be the first time a dog has been affected by this disease,” Lewis told reporters.
Monkeypox was first identified in 1958 in monkeys kept for research in Denmark. However, it was later found to be more common in mice. The disease was first identified in humans in 1970, and since then the disease has been confined mainly to some West and Central African countries.
However, by last May, the disease started spreading rapidly all over the world. The main symptoms of the disease are fever, muscle pain and large blisters like blisters on the skin. There are also reports that the spread of the disease is mainly seen in men who have sex with men.
The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency due to the spread of monkeypox. Since the beginning of this year, more than 35,000 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in 92 countries and 12 people have died, according to the World Health Organization.
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