WHO warns European nations about Monkeypox virus, says cases could “accelerate”

|HT|

Monkeypox virus has sparked concerns in at least nine European nations - Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom - with cases having been reported from the United States, Canada and Australia too. While the WHO held an emergency meeting on Friday, a top health official has sounded a warning that cases could “accelerate”. “As we enter the summer season... with mass gatherings, festivals and parties, I am concerned that transmission could accelerate,” WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said. The spread, Kluge has said, seems “atypical”. "All but one of the recent cases have no relevant travel history to areas where monkeypox is endemic," he added.

Nearly 100 cases are confirmed or suspected in Europe. In Spain, 24 new cases were recorded on Friday, taking the total count past 30. A sauna in Madrid has been forced to close over a suspected link to the outbreak. "The Paraiso sauna will remain closed for the next few days, a precautionary measure in the face of the alert... over the emergence of so-called monkeypox infections in the Madrid region," a Twitter post read. "This is the largest and most widespread outbreak of monkeypox ever seen in Europe," Germany's armed forces' medical service said. The European nation reported its first case in the country on Friday. “Monkeypox is a sylvatic zoonosis with incidental human infections that usually occur in forested parts of Central and West Africa. It is caused by the monkeypox virus which belongs to the orthopoxvirus family,” the WHO says.

The transmission usually occurs “by droplet exposure via exhaled large droplets and by contact with infected skin lesions or contaminated materials. The incubation period of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days. The disease is often self-limiting with symptoms usually resolving spontaneously within 14 to 21 days,” says the world health body.

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