A section of skin tissue, collected from a skin lesion of a monkey, which had been infected with the monkeypox virus, is seen to increase by 50X on the fourth day of the development of the rash. in 1968. CDC / Brochure via REUTERS
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GENEVA, May 28 (Reuters) – Leading infectious disease experts are pushing for faster action by global health authorities to contain a growing smallpox outbreak that has spread to at least 20 countries.
They argue that governments and the World Health Organization should not repeat the first missteps of the COVID-19 pandemic that delayed the detection of cases, aiding the spread of the virus.
Although monkeypox is not as transmissible or dangerous as COVID, these scientists say, there needs to be clearer guidance on how to isolate a person infected with monkeypox, more explicit advice on how to protect people at risk and improvements in testing and contact tracking. .
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“If this becomes endemic (in most countries), we will have another nasty disease and many difficult decisions to make,” said Isabelle Eckerle, a professor at the Center for Emerging Viral Diseases in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WHO is considering whether the outbreak should be assessed as a possible public health emergency of international interest (PHEIC), an official told Reuters. A WHO determination that an outbreak is a global health emergency, as it did with COVID or Ebola, would help speed up research and funding to contain a disease.
“It’s always under consideration, but there’s still no emergency committee (on monkeypox),” said Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s health emergency program, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the agency in Geneva.
However, experts say that the WHO is unlikely to reach this conclusion soon, because the smallpox of the monkey is a known threat that the world has tools to combat. Discussing whether to create an emergency committee, the body that recommends declaring a PHEIC, is only part of the agency’s routine response, WHO officials said.
Eckerle called on the WHO to encourage countries to implement more coordinated and stringent containment measures even without a declaration of emergency. He is concerned that talking about the virus being mild, as well as the availability of vaccines and treatments in some countries, “could potentially lead to lazy behavior on the part of public health authorities.”
NOT THE SAME AS COVID
More than 300 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported this month, a generally mild disease that spreads through close contact, causing flu-like symptoms and a distinctive rash.
Most have been in Europe more than in the Central and West African countries where the virus is endemic. No deaths were reported in the current outbreak.
However, global health officials have expressed alarm over the growing outbreak in non-endemic countries. The WHO has said it expects the numbers to rise as surveillance increases.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, wrote on Twitter that the monkey’s smallpox was different from SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus, but “we’re making some of the same mistakes when it comes to responding decisively. with hand tools. “
On Friday, the WHO reiterated that the monkeypox virus can be contained with measures that include rapid detection and isolation of cases and monitoring of contacts. Read more
Infected people, and in some cases their close contacts, are advised to isolate themselves for 21 days, but it is unclear to what extent people would adhere to such a long time away from work or others. commitments. The lab’s ability to test for monkeypox is also not widely established, Eckerle said, meaning rapid diagnosis can be difficult.
Mass vaccination is not considered necessary, but some countries, such as Britain and France, are offering vaccines to health care workers and close contacts. Read more
Other experts say the current response is proportionate and that considering monkeypox a global health emergency and declaring a PHEIC would be inappropriate at this stage.
“This is reserved for threats with the highest level of risk based on infectivity, severity, and the international risk of escalation,” said Dale Fisher, president of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). ) and professor of medicine in Singapore.
Beyond the labels, experts said the most important lesson of the past two years is that preventing pandemics once they have started to spread is too late.
“It’s always disappointing when the world wakes up with a new disease only when it affects high-income countries,” said Piero Olliaro, a professor of poverty-related infectious diseases at Oxford University and an expert on monkeypox.
To prepare for pandemics, “you have to do it where the diseases are now,” he said.
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Report by Jennifer Rigby; Additional report by Emma Farge; Editing by Josephine Mason, Michele Gershberg and Daniel Wallis
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