LONDON: There have been more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox reported globally from 78 countries, with the majority in Europe, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
The WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency on Saturday.
So far, 98 per cent of cases outside the countries in Africa where the virus is endemic have been reported in men who have intimate relations with men, the WHO said.
Its Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged that group to consider reducing numbers of partners and swapping contact details with any new partners.
“This is an outbreak that can be stopped… the best way to do that is to reduce the risk of exposure,” Tedros told a news conference from Geneva. “That means making safe choices for yourself and others.”
Monkeypox is in the process of being renamed, to avoid the name being “weaponised” or in a racist way, WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said.
The UN agency is recommending vaccination for high-risk groups, including men who have intimate relations with men with multiple partners and healthcare workers.
It cautioned that it takes several weeks after getting the second dose of vaccine to be fully protected, so people should take other precautions until that point.
Around 10 per cent of patients have been hospitalised in the current outbreak and five have died, all of them in Africa, the WHO said.
Monkeypox has been a globally neglected public health problem in parts of Africa for decades, but cases began to be reported outside countries where it is endemic in May.
It generally causes mild to moderate symptoms, including fever, fatigue and painful skin lesions that resolve within a few weeks.
Tedros said there were about 16 million doses of approved vaccine available, but only in bulk, so it would take several months to get them into vials.
The WHO is urging countries with stockpiles to share vaccine while supply is constrained, he added. (Reporting by Jennifer Rigby and Wendell Roelf; editing by John Stonestreet)
EU THE ‘EPICENTRE’
European Union member states must step up their response to the outbreak of the monkeypox virus, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a letter seen by dpa on Wednesday.
Writing to EU health ministers, Kyriakides called for greater cooperation to address the global health situation “where the European Union is the epicentre of detected cases.”
The rallying call to the bloc’s health ministers comes after the WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak in more than 50 countries an “emergency of international concern.”
Reminding ministers of previous experience at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kyriakides called for EU countries to share monkeypox case data widely across the EU.
The health commissioner also urged EU member states to step up contact tracing to stem potential virus outbreaks while speeding up work to distribute vaccines.
Kyriakides encouraged EU member states to increase public health campaigns about monkeypox but cautioned against the risk of stigmatisation. — Reuters/dpa
