Monkey pox: no endemic and non-endemic countries, says WHO

Usually circulating in Central and West Africa, the virus is now present on several continents.

We remove the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries, and present countries together when possible, to reflect the unified response that is neededsaid theWHO in its June 17 newsletter sent Saturday to the media.

From January 1 to June 15, a total of 2103 confirmed cases, one probable case and one death (Nigeria Editor’s note) have been reported to theWHO in 42 countriesshe says.

On June 23, she will assess whether the current outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concernits highest level of alertness.

Europe at the top of the list

The European region is at the center of the spread of the virus, with 1,773 confirmed cases, or 84% of the global total. Next comes the American continent (245 cases, 12%), followed by Africa (64 cases, 3%) and the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean (14 cases) and the Western Pacic (7 cases).

L’WHO considers it likely that the actual number of cases is higher.

She considers that the virus must have already been circulating before the current outbreak without its transmission being detected. That could date back to 2017she says.

Since 2017, a few imported cases, particularly from Nigeria, have indeed been sporadically identified in several countries.

In the current outbreak, the majority of reported cases so far are in men who have sex with men. The vast majority, however, had not traveled to African countries where the virus was endemic.

Less dangerous

Known in humans since 1970, monkeypox or simian orthopox virus is considered much less dangerous and contagious than its cousin, smallpox, eradicated in 1980. It is a disease considered rare, caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals.

But in the current outbreak, human-to-human transmission is at the forefront.

There are two main groups (clades) of simianpox virus, that of West Africa (case fatality rate around 1%) and that of the Congo Basin (case fatality rate up to 10%). In all cases reported in countries newly affected by the virus, it is the West African clade that has been identified.