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Following the first case detected on Thursday, August 15, outside Africa, in Sweden, the French government has decided to place the French health system on maximum alert.
24 hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the mpox epidemic an international public health emergency, France is also raising its alert level. Gabriel Attal said that in the face of the emergence of a new variant and the circulation of the virus in Africa, the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) have raised the alert level. Thus, the French health system has also raised its alert level to maximum vigilance.
The symptoms are always the same: fever, joint pain, skin lesions that then develop into pustules. Monkeypox has already caused 548 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Thursday, August 15, a first case was detected outside the continent in Sweden, and a second, on Friday, August 16, in Pakistan. Fortunately, a vaccine exists. The government has indicated that France will donate vaccines to the most affected countries.