More than 50,000 cases of monkeypox have been recorded since an outbreak began in May, mainly affecting North America and Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. board of the organization which lists all confirmed cases, there were 50,496 cases and 16 deaths as of August 31. In the United States as in Europe, the number of infections seems to be slowing down.
“These signs confirm what we have said time and time again from the start: with the right measures, this outbreak can be stopped,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Wednesday. He noted that several countries on the American continent were still seeing the number of cases increase but was pleased “to see a continuing downward trend in Canada”. US health authorities also reported a slight slowdown on Wednesday. In Europe, Dr. Tedros highlighted the good results obtained in Germany and the Netherlands.
Outside Africa, where the disease is endemic in a number of countries, the disease mainly affects men who have sex with men.
To eliminate the circulation of the virus, the WHO recommends maintaining surveillance measures, targeted vaccination, identification of contact cases and engagement with men who have sex with men, recommending in particular to limit the number of sexual partners.
Monkeypox is not currently considered a sexually transmitted disease and anyone can contract it. Direct skin-to-skin contact but also infected sheets or clothing are vectors of transmission of the disease.
The WHO also strongly emphasizes the need to avoid any stigmatization of a specific community, which could lead its members to hide the disease, not seek treatment and continue to spread it.
The WHO had triggered its highest level of alert on July 24 to try to prevent the epidemic from gaining even more momentum and settling in permanently. “We don’t have to live with monkeypox,” if the right steps are taken, Dr. Tedros said.
More than 50,000 cases of monkeypox have been recorded since the start in May of an outbreak affecting mainly North America and Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. According to the organization’s dashboard that lists all confirmed cases, there were 50,496 cases and 16 deaths as of August 31. In the United States as in Europe, the number…