An increase in the number of deaths linked to monkeypox is to be expected, estimated on Saturday the WHO Regional Office for Europe after the announcement of the first deaths outside Africa, in Spain and Brazil. However, the organization stresses that severe complications remain rare.
These three cases bring the number of deaths recorded worldwide since May to eight, with the first five reported in Africa, where the disease is endemic and was first detected in humans in 1970.” the continued spread of monkeypox in Europe, we expect more deaths,” said Catherine Smallwood, an emergency officer at WHO Europe, in a statement.
The highest level of alert, triggered by the WHO
The objective must be “to quickly interrupt the transmission of the virus in Europe and put a stop to this epidemic”, she insists while stressing that, in most cases, the disease can be cured by itself, without requiring treatment. “The reporting of monkeypox-related deaths does not change our assessment of the epidemic in Europe. We know that, although self-limiting in most cases, monkeypox can lead to serious complications,” a- she noted.
The Spanish authorities have so far not given the precise cause of death, pending in particular the results of an autopsy, while the Brazilian authorities have stressed that the deceased man suffered from “other serious conditions”. . On July 24, the WHO triggered the highest level of alert, the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (USPPI), to strengthen the fight against monkeypox.
A “relatively easy” prevention
At the microphone of Europe 1, Jean-Paul Stahl, infectious disease specialist at the University of Grenoble, however, shows no particular concern: “What is more worrying is the transmissibility of the virus (…) but the prevention is relatively easy. From the moment someone has local symptoms, a rash with, in quotes, pimples, it is necessary to refrain from having contact with other people for three weeks, the time that the lesions disappear. In everyday life when you are dressed and you have lesions on the genital level, there is no risk for anyone”.
According to the WHO, more than 18,000 cases have been detected worldwide outside Africa since the beginning of May, the majority of them in Europe. For now, the organization emphasizes the absence of vaccines for everyone and therefore recommends prioritizing those at risk.