It won’t take as many population-wide measures to stop the virus from spreading, according to Covid-19 (UN health agency’s top European official).
Informing the public about monkeypox, isolating the infected, and organizing effective contact tracing and monitoring are the best ways to contain the spread of the virus, the World Health Organization’s top official in Europe said on Tuesday.
The European continent “remains at the epicenter of the largest and most geographically widespread monkeypox outbreak ever reported outside of endemic areas in western and central Africa,”Hans Kluge is the WHO’s Regional Director for Europe.
More than 550 cases have been reported to the WHO in thirty countries. Most of these are outside Africa and most often occur in Europe. While the virus can cause severe skin reactions, there are rarely any fatalities.
The UN Health Body has confirmed that the monkeypox epidemic was a result of UN investigations. “certainly underway as early as mid-April”Kluge added that the continent is experiencing new infections. “every day.”
It is most common among the elderly. “men who have sex with men,”Most of the people infected are those with multiple partners who attended parties or large events. But that doesn’t mean people outside the gay and bisexual communities are not at risk, he warned.
Officials at the WHO assured this “an effective response to monkeypox will not require the same extensive population measures as we needed for COVID-19 because the virus does not spread in the same way.”
His reference was to large-scale vaccination campaigns and lockdowns in several countries that were implemented to stop the spread of coronavirus during the last two years.
It is important to reduce the number of monkeypox patients. “clear communication, community-led action, case isolation during the infectious period, and effective contact tracing and monitoring,”He said.
Hans Kluge suggested that the risk groups, doctors and general population should all be informed more about the virus. Likewise, hospitals should have better equipment to diagnose the disease rapidly.
The essential task of effective tracing and driving those people who were in contact with infected individuals for more than 21 days will be also important. “While the quarantining of contacts may not be necessary, twice-daily temperature checks and self-monitoring are critical,”He said.
Officials from the WHO stressed the need for equitable distribution of medical countermeasures between countries based on their exposure to the same outbreaks. “We cannot allow ugly competition for constrained resources to mirror the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However, this strategy can be reverted to a previous version. “we do not yet know if we will be able to contain its spread completely,” Kluge admitted.
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