More than 50,000 cases of monkeypox have been recorded worldwide since the start of the epidemic in May – it mainly affects North America and Europe –, announced on Wednesday August 31, the World Organization health (WHO).
According to the organization’s dashboard which lists all confirmed cases, there were 50,496 cases and sixteen deaths as of August 31. In the United States as in Europe, the number of infections seems to be slowing down.
“These signs confirm what we have said repeatedly from the start: with the right measures, this outbreak can be stopped”WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Wednesday.
He noted that several countries in the Americas were still registering an increase in the number of cases but he was delighted “to see a continued downward trend in Canada”. US health authorities also reported a slight slowdown on Wednesday. For Europe, Mr. Ghebreyesus highlighted the good results obtained in Germany and the Netherlands.
Maintain surveillance and targeted vaccination
Outside Africa, where monkeypox is endemic in a number of countries, the disease mainly affects men who have sex with men. To eliminate the circulation of the virus, the WHO recommends maintaining surveillance measures, targeted vaccination, identification of contact cases and engagement with men who have sex with men, recommending in particular to limit the number of partners.
Monkey pox is not currently considered a sexually transmitted disease and anyone can contract it. Direct skin-to-skin contact but also infected sheets or clothing are vectors of transmission of the disease. The WHO also strongly emphasizes the need to avoid any stigmatization of a community, which could lead its members to hide the disease, not to seek treatment and to continue to spread it.
The WHO had triggered its highest level of alert on July 24 to try to prevent the epidemic from gaining even more momentum and settling in permanently. “We don’t have to live with monkeypox”if the right measures are taken, affirmed the director general of the WHO.