RT: Maria Van Kerkhove, Head of Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses at the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks at a press conference on the situation of coronavirus at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 29, 2020 .
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that the monkeypox virus has spread to more than 20 countries, and urged nations to increase surveillance of the infectious disease as outbreaks grow.
About 200 confirmed cases and more than 100 suspected cases of monkeypox have been detected outside the countries where it regularly travels, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Covid-19 technical director. He said more cases of rare viral disease are likely to be reported as surveillance is expanded, but added that the recent spread can be controlled.
“We expect more cases to be detected. We call on countries to step up surveillance,” Van Kerkhove said during a questionnaire on the global health agency’s social media platforms. “This is a difficult situation. It will be difficult, but it is a difficult situation in non-endemic countries,” he said.
Smallpox has spread to North America and Europe in recent weeks, sparking outbreaks in countries outside of Central and West Africa where the virus has been circulating at low levels for the past four decades. A milder strain of the West African virus is driving the outbreaks and most patients are recovering within a few weeks. No deaths have been reported so far.
The European Union has confirmed 118 cases of smallpox, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Spain and Portugal have reported the largest outbreaks in the EU with 51 and 37 cases respectively. The UK has confirmed 90 cases of the virus, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
In North America, the United States has identified nine cases of smallpox in seven states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Canadian health officials have confirmed 16 cases of monkeypox, all detected in the province of Quebec.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday that some U.S. patients have not traveled to countries with active outbreaks, suggesting the virus is spreading nationwide. Walensky says CDC is keeping track of contacts and trying to break U.S. broadcast chains
Health officials in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States have said that most patients are gay or bisexual men, and the virus is spread in many cases through sex. However, officials stressed that the smallpox of the monkey can be spread to anyone through close physical contact, regardless of sexual orientation. Van Kerkhove said it is important to raise awareness about who is at high risk right now without stigmatizing anyone.
Smallpox is not a sexually transmitted disease. The virus can be spread through any kind of skin-to-skin contact with an infected person who has an injury. It can also spread through contaminated body fluids, sheets and clothing, or if a person has a mouth injury.
The virus usually begins with flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, chills, headaches, exhaustion, and swollen lymph nodes. It then progresses to body eruptions characterized by high bumps that turn into cat-filled blisters that eventually dry out and fall off.
Van Kerhkove urged health professionals to consider monkeypox as a diagnosis for patients with rashes who come to sexual health clinics, emergency services, infectious disease clinics, care physicians primary care and dermatologists.
“It doesn’t mean that anyone with a rash has smallpox, but we need to be aware of what is and what is not smallpox in monkeys, and we need to ensure that countries have the ability to test and provide the right information.” he said. .
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