The smallpox’s smallpox poses a “moderate risk” to public health in general worldwide, the World Health Organization said on Sunday, after cases were reported in countries where the disease is not normally found. opportunity to establish itself as a human pathogen and spread to groups at higher risk of serious illness, such as young children and immunosuppressed people, ”the WHO said.
As of May 26, a total of 257 confirmed cases and 120 suspected cases from 23 non-endemic Member States of the virus have been reported, the health agency said in a statement. No fatalities have been reported so far.
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The WHO also said that the sudden appearance of monkeypox at the same time in several non-endemic countries suggests an undetected transmission for some time and recent amplifying events. The agency added that it expects more cases to be reported as surveillance in endemic and non-endemic countries expands. “The vast majority of reported cases so far have no established travel links with an endemic area and have been reported through primary care or sexual health services,” the UN agency said. On Friday, Sylvie Briand, WHO’s head of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, acknowledged that cases of monkeypox found in recent weeks outside countries where the virus is commonly circulating could be just the beginning.
“We don’t know if we’re just seeing the peak of the iceberg,” he said in a briefing in countries on the “unusual” spread of the virus.
Smallpox is related to smallpox, which kills millions worldwide each year before being eradicated in 1980. But monkeypox is much less severe, with a mortality rate of three to six percent. Most people recover in three to four weeks. Initial symptoms include high fever, swollen lymph nodes, and rash like chickenpox. Although many of the cases have been related to men who have sex with men, experts point out that there is no evidence that it was a sexually transmitted disease. Rather, it appears to be transmitted by close contact with an infected person who has blisters on their skin. There is not much treatment, but there are some antivirals developed against smallpox, including one that was recently approved by the European Medicines Agency. against smallpox. Smallpox vaccines have also been found to be approximately 85% effective in preventing smallpox.
However, as smallpox has not posed a threat for more than four decades, most people under the age of 45 have not received the vaccine, and supplies of the stings are very limited today.