World health authorities are increasingly concerned about the increase in cases of monkeypox. The World Health Organization (WHO) triggered its highest level of alert this Saturday to try to stop the epidemic that is plaguing the world but mainly affects Europe.
“I have decided to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (USPPI) regarding the monkeypox outbreak,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference.
This is the seventh time in the organization’s history that such a threshold has been triggered, only in “serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected” situations. The general director explained that the committee of experts was divided, nine votes were raised against a USPPI against six votes in favor of such a measure. In the endit was he who decided.
Almost 1,500 cases in France according to Public Health France
Because since May, 16,836 people have contracted the disease in 74 countries, according to the dashboard of the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of July 22. This is the first time that smallpox has affected the world in such a global way.
On the French side, there were 1,453 cases on July 19, 2022, according to the latest Public Health France bulletin, and the numbers have continued to rise in recent weeks. Although health authorities in the United Kingdom, one of the epicenters of the disease, have reported a drop in the infection rate, the number of cases is increasing rapidly around the world.
An outbreak that is of particular concern to the gay community, as monkeypox mainly affects men who have sex with men, and “particularly those who have multiple partners, which means it can be stopped with the right strategies in the right group,” said Dr. Tedros.
“To mobilize the health authorities”
For this reason, the WHO calls on the most affected countries to take assistance and information measures “to protect the health, human rights and dignity of the affected community.” The head of the organization also stressed that “stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus.”
“It’s a call to action, but it’s not the first,” said Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies manager, who hopes this will lead to collective action against the disease.
“The triggering of this alert is precisely to mobilize the health authorities of the different countries to better study the chains of contamination but also to have vaccines against the disease,” analyzed Bruno Mégarbane, head of the intensive care unit at the Lariboisière hospital. from Paris. , Saturday on our antenna.
Associations denounce lack of means
In France, vaccination is open to people who have been exposed to the virus, in particular at 11 centers in Île-de-France since July 11. The High Health Authority also announced on July 8 that it recommends a “preventive” vaccination that is offered to the groups most exposed to the virus.
“We have a strong demand for vaccines from people at risk and we have to go extremely fast if we want to stop this epidemic,” said Benjamin Davido, an infectious disease specialist at Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches in Hauts-de-Seine. , on our antenna this Sunday.
But the LGBT associations still denounce the lack of resources on the part of the French authorities in the face of the great demand. Marc-Antoine Bartoli, activist and prevention coordinator for Act up Parisn, spoke on Saturday on the BFMTV antenna of “a largely insufficient stock of vaccine doses”.
The association requests the release of 100,000 doses while the Ministry of Health has announced the opening of 30,000 places. “It is estimated that 300,000 people need to be vaccinated, and this has consequences for appointments in centers that cannot ensure the effective vaccination of populations,” stressed Marc-Antoine Bartoli.
Source: BFM TV
