Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The World Health Organization (WHO) asks citizens of the world to be aware of monkeypox. WHO officials said its sudden appearance in several countries around the world showed the virus had been “spreading undetected” for some time.
“Investigations are ongoing, but the sudden appearance of monkeypox in many countries at the same time suggests that there may be transmission going undetected for some time,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. AFPThursday (2/6/2022).
Since the UK first reported cases of monkeypox on May 7, more than 550 cases have been confirmed in 30 countries outside endemic areas. Please note, monkeypox is endemic in western and central African countries.
Monkeypox is spread by close contact. Symptoms usually include a high fever and a chickenpox-like rash that goes away after a few weeks.
So far, most of the reported cases are related to male-to-male sexual intercourse. Although experts emphasize there is no evidence that monkeypox is sexually transmitted.
“Anyone can be infected monkeypox if they have close physical contact with another infected person,” Tedros added.
“We urge affected countries to expand their surveillance.”
Meanwhile, WHO monkeypox expert Rosamund Lewis said the emergence of so many cases in large parts of Europe and other countries had never been seen before. This, he said, should be a concern.
“It shows transmission that has not been detected for a while,” he explained on the same occasion.
“We don’t know if it’s weeks, months or maybe years… we don’t really know if it’s too late to hold back”.
He called on authorities and citizens to work together to prevent the spread by contact tracing and isolating people with the disease. According to him, the vaccine developed for smallpox is 85 percent effective in preventing it, but the supply is limited.
WHO itself does not recommend mass vaccination. Vaccine use should be targeted at protecting health care workers and the people most at risk of infection.
The mortality rate for monkeypox is usually quite low. So far, no deaths have been reported among the cases found so far outside endemic countries.
However, from the same page, it is known that thousands of people fall ill from monkeypox every year in endemic areas. Around 70 deaths were reported in five African countries so far this year.
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