At least 5,322 cases of monkeypox are laboratory confirmed in the current outbreak of the disease, said Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO), and specified that 85% of the infections have been registered in Europe, the region so far most affected by the disease.
The number of cases represents a increase of more than 50% compared to the previous evaluation.
Despite the increase in cases, for the moment the disease has caused only one deathpointed out the UN health agency.
Geographical distribution
At a press conference in Geneva, the WHO spokeswoman explained the geographical distribution of the outbreak.
“85% of the cases are in Europe. It is followed by the region of Africa, Americathe Eastern Mediterranean and the Pacific”, explained Fadela Chaib.
The spokeswoman warned that the number of cases has increased considerably in recent days.
The last report on the disease, dated June 30, recorded 3,413 cases, which means that in just one week an increase of 55.9% was documented.
limit the spread
Although so far most of the identified cases have occurred among men who have sex with men, “other vulnerable groups are also at high riskChaib pointed out.
“Some have been reported cases in children and in people who have a compromised immune system,” added the spokeswoman.
After the meeting of its Emergency Committee on June 23, in which it was determined that monkeypox does not represent a public health emergency of international concernthe World Health Organization It has not scheduled a second deliberation despite the progress of the cases.
However, the agency is carefully monitoring the situation and “continues to ask countries to pay special attention to cases of monkeypox, in an attempt to curb new infections,” concluded Fadela Chaib.
Most of the time, monkeypox transmitted by close interpersonal contactbut there are other ways of contagion such as rashes on the skin, in the eyes, in the mouth and on the mucous membranes around the genital area.
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