Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 20. Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency reporters in London and Geneva reported: British Health Secretary Syed Javid said through social media on the 20th that the British Health Security Agency has confirmed 11 new cases of monkeypox in the United Kingdom.

So far, there have been 20 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the UK recently.

WHO officials said a few days ago that there are still many unknowns about the transmission mode, clinical characteristics and epidemiology of monkeypox.

　　Syed Javid said most cases were now mild and the UK had procured more effective vaccines against monkeypox.

　　The World Health Organization's Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response, Ibrahima Sousse Faller, said at the organization's press conference a few days ago that monkeypox is mainly endemic in West and Central Africa, with most cases found in Nigeria and Congo. (Gold), Central African Republic and other countries.

For example, Congo reported more than 6,000 cases in 2020 and more than 3,000 in 2021; Nigeria is also seeing an increase in the number of cases this year, mostly in rural areas.

At present, there are still many unknowns about the transmission mode, clinical characteristics and epidemiology of monkeypox, and there are still gaps in the treatment and diagnosis.

　　Regarding the monkeypox cases reported in the UK, he said that WHO was in close communication with the regional office, Public Health England and partners to monitor not only those who had been in contact with cases with a travel history to Nigeria, but also the UK. Locally transmitted cases.

WHO has noted monkeypox transmission among men who have sex with men, a new clue that needs proper investigation to better understand the dynamics of indigenous transmission in the UK and some other countries.

　　Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said the epidemiology of monkeypox had changed over the past few years and its emergence had expanded.

In West Africa and the Sahel, with increasing climatic pressures and changing agricultural practices, humans have had to adapt in many cases to survive.

At the same time, small animals and rodents are adapting to the same droughts and food crises that have brought animal populations closer to humans, sometimes competing for the same food resources.

　　He stressed the need to truly understand the deep ecology and human behavior of the above-mentioned areas, involving and empowering communities to understand how the disease is spreading, and then trying to stop the spread of the disease to humans from its natural source.

　　Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease. Monkeypox virus can be transmitted from animals to humans through close contact. Although human-to-human transmission is not easy, it can also be infected by close contact with infected people.

The initial symptoms of monkeypox infection in humans include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, and swollen lymph nodes, which can later develop into a widespread rash on the face and body.

Most infected people recover within a few weeks, but some are seriously ill.

(Participating reporters: Huang Zemin, Liu Qu)