The World Health Organization is convening a meeting of experts on June 23 to decide whether the smallpox of the monkey should be declared a global health emergency as it had to do with Covid-19 two years ago. However, unlike the new coronavirus, monkeypox is not a new disease. But even though it has been around for decades, the emergence of cases where monkeypox is not commonly seen and the way it spreads have fueled concern. Where have the cases been reported? Since May 13, more than 1,600 cases and about 1,500 smallpox suspects have been confirmed. reported to the WHO from at least 39 countries. Seven of these are African countries where the disease is endemic, while the rest are those in which the disease was not known or had only been previously detected in small numbers. In 2022, a total of 72 deaths have been reported due to the smallpox of the monkey, all of them confined to Africa and so far in the newly affected countries. The WHO said that the appearance of monkeypox simultaneously in places without direct or recent links with trips to areas where the disease is endemic “suggests that there may be undetected transmission for several weeks or more.” Recent cases are related to a less lethal variant of monkeypox known as the West African clade, which has an overall mortality of less than one in a hundred cases. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus said this “global outbreak of monkeypox is clearly unusual and worrying” and another senior official noted that the risk of spread was “high” in Europe and “moderate”. in the rest of the world, although there are gaps in the knowledge of how the virus is transmitted. The WHO said the outbreak of monkeypox this time around has been marked by varying symptoms among those infected and that many cases “do not have the clinically described clinical picture of monkeypox”, such as fever, swollen lymph nodes and rashes on the face and limbs. Does sexual intercourse play a role? Smallpox is transmitted through close physical contact with a symptomatic patient. However, it is unclear whether asymptomatic people can spread the disease. The WHO said person-to-person transmission can also occur through “respiratory droplets (and possibly short-range aerosols).” The WHO said that a significant number of cases initially reported in the current outbreak have been related to men having sex with men (MSM), but noted that modes of transmission during sexual intercourse remain unknown and ” “It’s not clear what the sexual role of the body is. Fluids, including semen and vaginal fluids, play a role in the transmission of monkeypox.” or gay and bisexual communities in Europe to two recent radishes held in Spain and Belgium, but health experts and bodies have struggled to make it clear that sexual preferences have nothing to do with the spread of monkeypox and a large proportion of cases among MSM communities only underscore the fact that transmission is frequent among close contacts of an infected person.Fear of stigma linked to infectious diseases, which has been seen with HIV-AIDS and, more recently tment, with the Covid-19, has also been a concern with monkeypox. So much so that the WHO is said to be working on a new name for monkeypox in the midst of calls by scientists for “a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing name” for the virus. What about vaccines? Smallpox vaccination is known to provide cross-protection against smallpox, but the WHO notes that any immunity from these injections will only be present in people over the age of 42 to 50 from smallpox vaccination programs. they ended up all over the world in 1980 after the eradication of the disease. Although some countries have strategic supplies of older smallpox vaccines, the WHO said the use of these first-generation vaccines is not recommended as they do not meet current safety standards. Instead, it recommends second- and third-generation smallpox vaccines along with a vaccine (MVABN) that has been specifically approved for monkeypox. But as the supply of new vaccines is limited, the WHO said it does not recommend mass vaccination at this time and that “decisions on the use of smallpox or smallpox vaccines should be based on a full assessment. of the risks and benefits in each case “. . Text: Kenneth Mohanty and Anjishnu Das; Source: WHO, US CDC, media reports