The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday that the nearly 200 cases of monkeypox detected in recent weeks, in countries where the virus does not usually circulate, could be “just 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 global infectious hazard preparedness department, during a presentation to the organization’s member states on the “unusual” spread of the virus, during the World Health Assembly in Geneva (Switzerland).
Experts are trying to determine what caused this “unusual situation,” and preliminary results show no variation or mutation in the monkeypox virus, Briand said.
“We have a window of opportunity to stop the transmission now,” she said. “If we put the right measures in place now, we can probably contain this quickly.”
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), precisely 219 cases – but no deaths – had been reported on Wednesday.
Endemic to eleven countries in West and Central Africa, monkeypox has suddenly been detected in more than twenty other countries around the world, including the United States, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and a dozen from European countries.
The Spanish Ministry of Health listed 98 confirmed cases on Friday, the United Kingdom 90, and Portugal 74. In the latter country, all the cases are men, most under the age of 40.
“We are at the very, very beginning of this event right now,” Ms. Briand explained. “We know that we will have more cases in the days to come”, but “it is not a disease that the general public should be worried about. It’s not Covid or other fast-spreading diseases.”
