More than 3,200 confirmed cases and one death have been reported to the organization from around 50 countries where the disease is not endemic this year.
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While a first case of monkey pox has been confirmed in a child in France, thehe head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday June 26 that the global outbreak of this disease was not a global health emergency for the moment. The director general of this UN agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had convened a meeting of experts on the issue on Thursday to find out whether the WHO should trigger its highest level of alert in the face of the epidemic, which mainly affects Western Europe.
Known in humans since 1970, monkeypox or “simian orthopoxvirus” is a disease considered rare. It first results in a high fever and quickly evolves into a rash, with the formation of scabs. Most often benign, it generally heals spontaneously after two to three weeks.
Many unknowns about the phenomenon
A spike in monkeypox cases has been detected since early May, far from central and west African countries where the disease has long been endemic. More than 3,200 confirmed cases and one death have been reported to WHO from around 50 countries where the disease is not endemic this year.
“In addition, since the beginning of 2022, nearly 1,500 suspected cases and around 70 deaths have been reported in Central Africa, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Cameroon”said Thursday Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu. “The emergency committee shared deep concerns about the scale and speed of spread of the current outbreak”noting many unknowns about the phenomenon, he said in a statement released after reviewing the experts’ report, which represents their consensus position.