The World Health Organization has declared that a new type of disease named the “Monkeypox” virus has spread to more than 20 countries, requesting nations to increase surveillance of the infectious disease so it doesn’t get out of hand. WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove mentioned that there are 200 confirmed cases and 100 suspected cases of monkeypox outside the counties where usually circulates.
In addition, she said more cases will be recognized if the surveillance system of a country is made strict. “We expect more cases to be detected. We are asking countries to increase surveillance,” Van Kerkhove mentions during a Q&A section on the global health agency’s social media presence. She also mentions that “This is a containable situation. It will be difficult, but it’s a containable situation in the non-endemic countries.”
Over the past four decades, the virus has circulated outside central and west Africa. But in recent weeks Monkeypox has spread to North America and Europe. A milder West African strain of the virus is responsible for the outbreaks. The effect of the disease is not severe. Most patients recover within a week. Moreover, there has been no death report. According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, there have been 118 cases detected of MonkeyPox.
In North America, the total number of detected cases is 25. U. identified 9 cases and Canada detected 16 cases in Quebec province. Recent studies show that Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease. The virus can spread through sink-to-skin contact.