positive monkey pox testSouth Africa’s disease experts said on the 25th (local time) that they do not see the need for a large-scale vaccine against monkeypox, Archyde.com reported.
They also did not expect an explosive increase in the number of cases of monkey pox like the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
South Africa has not yet had a case of monkeypox or suspected infection. Monkey smallpox is an endemic disease that has occurred in parts of western and central Africa and is usually a mild viral infection.
However, South Africa’s health authorities are on high alert as more than 200 suspected and confirmed cases have emerged from at least 19 countries since early May.
“At this point, we don’t need a monkeypox mass vaccination,” said Adrian Furen, director of South Africa’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NICD).
Jacqueline Weyer, a member of the NICD’s Emerging Zoological and Parasitic Disease Center, said about the outbreak of monkeypox outside Africa, “It’s happening in different places, and there’s nothing strange or alien to us that we haven’t seen so far.”
He added that monkeypox is not as contagious as the virus that causes COVID-19.
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