More than 50,000 cases of monkeypox have been recorded since this year’s outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
According to the WHO page where all confirmed cases are collected, as of August 31, 50,496 infections and 16 deaths caused by this disease had been reported, the latest outbreak of which was declared an international public health emergency by the UN agency. .
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the decline in new infections could be proof the outbreak was being contained.
“In the Americas, where more than half of reported cases were recorded, several countries continue to see an increase in the number of infections, but it is encouraging to see a sustained downward trend in Canada,” Tedros told a news conference.
“Some European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, are also seeing a clear slowdown in the outbreak, demonstrating the effectiveness of public health interventions and community engagement in tracking infections and preventing transmission,” he added.
“These signs confirm what we have been saying constantly from the beginning: that with the right measures, this is an outbreak that can be stopped,” he added. “We don’t have to live with monkeypox ,” he added.
Since early May, cases of monkeypox have been reported outside African countries where the disease is endemic.
The WHO raised its alarm level to the maximum on July 24, when it declared the outbreak an international public health emergency, as it had also done with covid-19.
Hope in Europe
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization indicated that “there are hopeful early signs, as evidenced in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and other countries that the outbreak may be slowing down,” it said at a press conference. the director of WHO-Europe, Hans Kluge.
Kluge was convinced that it is possible to eliminate human-to-human transmission “if we commit to doing it and put the necessary resources towards that end.”
Given that the outbreak arose among men who have sex with men and remains focused on that group, prevention and response efforts must be focused there, “with active collaboration and community participation, creating an environment free of stigma and discrimination.” Kluge said.
The WHO European region has so far registered 22,000 cases in the 43 countries that make it up -and which include Russia and several former Soviet republics-, which represents more than a third of the global.
On the contrary, in the United States the largest outbreak is observed and on Tuesday they confirmed the first death of a patient related to the virus that causes monkeypox.
“The case is under investigation to determine what role monkeypox played in the death ,” Texas health officials said in a statement. So far, more than 18,000 cases of contagion have been recorded in the United States.
With information from AFP and EFE.
