New Delhi: The World Health Organisation has asked the countries to take measures to contain the spread of Monkeypox as the virus spread to 20 countries and 200 persons reported to be infected. It also asked the countries to share data related to the availability of vaccines.
In her briefing, Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead of COVID-19 response at WHO’s Emergency Diseases Unit said “We have about 200 confirmed cases and more than 100 suspected cases, but we expect those numbers to go up. It is across more than 20 countries and in four WHO regions”. She also said that there is a need to not stigmatise anyone related to this. This is about raising awareness. This is not a sexually transmitted infection. We do know that Monkeypox does transmit primarily from physical contact, skin to skin contact and that includes sexual contact,” she said. The WHO official noted that Monkeypox is not the same as Covid-19 and “we are not seeing that type of expansion.”
WHO director for Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness Sylvie Briand said “We don’t know the extent of the disease. But as I said, we as a country should be more vigilant, so that we detect more cases. We think that if we put in place the right measure now, we probably can contain this easily. So that’s why, we are making this briefing today and we are trying to raise the awareness because we are at the very, very beginning and it’s we have a good window of opportunity to stop the transmission now,”.
According to WHO, Monkeypox is usually a self-limited disease and typically lasts 2 to 4 weeks. It may be severe in children, pregnant women or persons with immune suppression due to other conditions. The incubation period is usually 6 to 13 days but it can be longer from 5 to 21 days.
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