Monkeypox: WHO recommends gays to “reduce the number of sexual partners”

Given the trend of the monkeypox epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has asked gays, the group most affected by the disease, to reduce the number of sexual partners.

The best way to protect yourself “is to reduce the risk of being exposed” to the disease, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained during a press conference in Geneva.

“For men who have sex with men, this also means, for the time being, reducing the number of sexual partners and exchanging information with any new relationships with to be able to contact them “in case of symptomsso they can be isolated, explained Ghebreyesus, who on Saturday activated the body’s highest alert level to contain the disease.

The recommendation is due to the fact that the gay population is the most affected by the disease. In America, for example, most cases have been detected in the United States, Canada and Brazil among men who have sex with men and who are between 25 and 45 years old, according to PAHO data.

More than 18,000 cases Monkeypox has been detected in 78 countries around the world since the beginning of May, 70% in Europe and 25% in America, the WHO chief said Wednesday.

Until now, only five people died from this diseaseall in Africa and 10% of cases required hospitalization to manage pain caused by infection in patients.

This was insisted by the international body that monitors health avoid any kind of stigmatization of a community, he specifies, since it could lead it to hide the infection and, therefore, continue to spread the disease.

International monkeypox emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared Saturday the international emergency from the current monkeypox epidemic.

The decision was made two days after an emergency committee with disease experts met to review the possible statement, which will force national health networks to step up their preventive measures.

This committee had chosen not to declare the emergency at a first meeting held in June when the cases were 3,000.

According to Tedros, this time too there has not been a complete consensus among the experts, but the director general has decided to declare the emergency given the high and growing number of cases in various regions of the entire planet.

So far, Argentina has registered 13 infected, of which 12 had a travel history before symptoms appeared.

With information from AFP

DD