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Monkeypox has now spread to at least 75 countries.
The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency following a surge in cases around the world.
The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and the decision was made this Saturday following a second meeting of the agency’s emergency committee on the virus.
This was announced by the director general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, two days following an emergency committee with experts in this disease met for the first time to analyze the possible declaration, which will force national health networks to increase their preventive measures.
So far, more than 16,000 cases in 75 countriesaccording to Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO director added that so far five people have died following becoming infected.
Currently, there are only two other such health emergencies: the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.
Dr Tedros explained that the WHO emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency.
However, he noted that smallpox It has been spread rapidly around the worldbecoming an international concern.
“The WHO assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions except the European region, where we assess the risk as high,” he said.
“It can be stopped with the right strategies”
He also stated that there is a risk of it spreading further internationally.
image source, Science Photo Library
Symptoms of monkeypox include rash, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion.
According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this statement will help accelerate vaccine development and will promote the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.
Similarly, the WHO is issuing recommendations that it hopes will prompt countries to take measures to stop the transmission of the virus and protect people most at risk.
“This is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups,” he concluded.
Monkeypox was found for the first time in central africa in the 1950s.
How do you get infected?
Monkeypox can be spread when someone is in close contact with an infected person.
PAHO’s Perez said it is transmitted through large exhaled droplets. It can enter the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract, or the eyes, nose, or mouth, and has an incubation period of 6 to 13 days, although it can be as long as 21 days.
Viral excretion through feces can also be a route of transmission of the virus.
Although it is called “monkey pox”, it is also transmitted by rodents, marsupials and other primates. PAHO noted that the population “should avoid handling animals.”
A hand petting a prairie dog
It can also be spread by contact with infected animals or by objects contaminated with viruses, such as clothing.
image source, UKHSA
The rash changes and goes through different stages, and can resemble chicken pox or syphilis, before eventually forming a scab, which then falls off.
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