WHO: Monkeypox cases may be 'tip of the iceberg'
The World Health Organization warned Friday that the two hundred monkeypox infections detected in recent weeks in countries where the virus does not usually spread, could be the "tip of the iceberg".
"We don't know if we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg," said Sylvie Briand, director of the WHO's Department of International Preparedness for Infectious Risks, in a presentation at the World Health Assembly in Geneva on the "uncommon" spread of the virus.
Briand added that experts are trying to determine the cause of this "unusual situation", and preliminary results show that there is no mutation or mutation in the monkeypox virus.
"We have a window of opportunity to stop the outbreak now... If we take appropriate measures now, we can probably contain it quickly," she said.
“We are currently at the beginning of this event,” the WHO official explained, adding, “We know that more cases will appear in the coming days,” but “this is not a disease that the general public should worry about, it is not Covid or other diseases that spread rapidly.” .
The number of confirmed cases of monkeypox virus around the world reached 219, on Wednesday, outside the countries where the disease is endemic, according to a report issued by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
The Stockholm-based European agency said that "the majority of cases are in young men who identify themselves as men who have sex with men. There have been no deaths."
Most of the infections are concentrated in Europe, which has recorded 191 cases, including 118 in the European Union.
The majority of infections were recorded in three European countries: the United Kingdom, where the first unusual cases were detected in early May (71 cases), Spain (51) and Portugal (37), according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the probability of transmission of monkeypox in the general population is "very low", but on the other hand, it is "high" in people who have multiple sexual partners.
This disease is endemic in 11 countries in West and Central Africa, and it is from the smallpox family, which was eradicated about forty years ago, but it is less dangerous than it.
It initially causes a high temperature and quickly develops into a rash with blisters.
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