From Emmanuel Iyoho,
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has removed the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries in its data on monkeypox to better unify the response to the virus.
Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe and experts say chances of infection are low.
It occurs mostly in remote parts of central and West African countries, near tropical rain forests.
Until the past few months, monkeypox had generally been confined to Western and Central Africa but is now present in several continents.
“We are removing the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries, reporting on countries together where possible, to reflect the unified response that is needed,” the WHO said in its outbreak situation update dated June 17 but sent to media on Saturday.
Between January 1 and June 15, 2,103 confirmed cases, a probable case and one death have been reported to the WHO in 42 countries, it said.
The Geneva-based UN health agency is due on June 23 to hold an emergency meeting to determine whether to classify the global monkeypox outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern.
The designation is the highest alarm the UN agency can sound.
The majority — 84 percent — of confirmed cases are from the European region, followed by the Americas, Africa, Eastern Mediterranean region and Western Pacific region.
WHO believes the actual number of cases is likely higher.
The normal initial symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash.
However, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that current cases do not always present flu-like symptoms, and rashes are sometimes limited to certain areas’.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had said it recorded 10 additional monkeypox cases in the last seven days in the country.
Reports have it that as global monkeypox cases continue to rise, public-health officials and researchers are questioning whether the current outbreaks can be contained.
WHO has said that the situation was unlikely to escalate into a full-blown pandemic.
But, there are now more than 1,000 confirmed infections, in nearly 30 countries where outbreaks do not usually occur.
Countries including Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States have begun implementing a strategy called ‘ring vaccination,’ to try to halt the spread of the virus.
This involves administering smallpox vaccines — which are thought to be effective against monkeypox, because, the viruses are related to people who have been exposed to monkeypoxthrough close contact with an infected person.
According to reports, there have been more than 1,200 cases of monkeypox since the start of the year.
Two main strains of the virus, West African and Central African, are known to exist, and it is the milder one from West Africa which is now circulating in other regions of the world.
The unusually high numbers of people infected with monkeypox outside of Africa, with no travel links to the region, means the virus is now spreading in the communities.