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America has become the epicenter of the monkeypox outbreak, with the largest number of cases in the world, warned the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
As of September 6, more than 30,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in America, especially in the United States, Brazil, Peru and Canada, reported the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, at a conference. virtual press.
“Improve surveillance systems”
“The two most affected regions have been Europe and the United States, but in Europe there is already a decrease, and this is what we hope will also happen in the Americas in several weeks,” explains Dr. Marcos Espinal, interim deputy director and Director of Communicable Diseases at PAHO.
However, he underlines, “in the Americas, the countries have very few cases, despite the fact that surveillance systems, as they improve, can detect more cases. Already the countries, all of them, have the capacity for diagnosis and detection. PAHO has trained them all. So we say epicenter, but it doesn’t mean it’s increasing. It is that cases are being detected that perhaps were not diagnosed and are now being diagnosed, because surveillance systems are also improving.”
Avoid stigmatization
What measures can be taken to prevent its spread? According to Dr. Espinal, detecting and isolating is essential: “It is not a disease like Covid that is transmitted through the air. This is for physical contact. 98% of cases are in men who have sex with men. PAHO is working with the LGTBQ+ community. What is asked if one is sick is to avoid sexual contact, be careful because they are pustules or skin lesions that are going to be transmitted to the other person.
PAHO asks to avoid stigmatization, which can have the effect that people do not get tested when they have symptoms. “Stigma has no place in public health,” said Carissa Etienne. Dr. Espinal, for his part, stresses the importance of “getting tested” even if there are only one or two lesions, and from there “see who are the contacts they have had and isolate them, and if they are not sick, in In that case, they can be given the vaccine.”
Vaccines
Because monkeypox vaccines are limited, PAHO recommends that priority be given to high-risk groups and communication. “The vaccine is a help tool. It is not recommended for the massive population because the main effect is for the contacts of people diagnosed with the disease, to avoid the disease in pre-exposure and post-exposure. It is also recommended for health workers, mainly laboratory workers, who handle the virus”, explains Dr. Espinal.
In any case, “it is not a lethal disease: very few cases have died, and the cases that have died are because they have had other contributing diseases; usually there is a good recovery”, concludes the specialist.
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