While the World Health Organization is working – among a thousand fronts – also to find a less discriminatory name to “monkeypox”i.e. al monkeypox, the epidemic begins to take on clearer and less alarming contours than a few weeks ago. At the moment, according to the organization led by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, infections have been reported from 42 states and as of June 15 the total was 2,103 confirmed caseswith a death.
Most of the cases were recorded in the European region: Great Britain – where the first outbreaks broke out – has 524, followed by Spain (313), Germany (263) and Portugal (241) while for Italy the balance is 68 (the figure updated last Saturday from Ministry of Health is actually just higher, 71 infections). Beyond the European borders is instead the Canada the country with the highest number of infections (159) followed by the United States (72). In addition, the WHO dossier reports a probable case in Australia while the reported death would have occurred in Nigeria.
“The epidemic continues to affect mainly men who have sex with men who have reported recent sex with new or multiple partners,” reads thelast report of the WHO. In light of the conditions in which we find ourselves, the organization “evaluates the risk globally as moderate whereas this is the first time that many cases and clusters of monkeypox have been reported simultaneously in many countries in widely disparate WHO geographic areas. ‘ All identified cases belong to the strain of monkeypox widespread in West Africaapparently milder than the endemic one in the Congo Basin.
There mortality – the Organization continues – has remained low. Even lower than that normally reported in endemic African areas. In any case, the Emergency Committee to assess the extent of the risk and, among other things, to find a new name for the disease. «The current risk for the general population remains low – adds the dossier – there is a risk for health workers if they come into contact with a case without wearing adequate personal protective equipment to prevent transmission; although it has not yet been reported in this current outbreak, the risk of health care-associated infections has been documented in the past. Should monkeypox begin to spread more widely to and within most vulnerable groups, there is the potential for greater health impact as the risk of serious illness and mortality is recognized to be higher in immunocompromised individuals, including people with poorly controlled HIV infection. Although monkeypox infection during pregnancy is not fully understood, limited data suggest that infection can lead to adverse outcomes for the fetus or newborn and for the mother. ‘
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Source: Vanity Fair
