The World Health Organization said Tuesday that the monkeypox epidemic sweeping the world is not linked to these animals, and deplored that primates could have been attacked in Brazil.
“People need to know that the transmission we’re seeing right now is happening between humans,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a regular news conference in Geneva.
She was being questioned about reports of attacks on monkeys in Brazil. The Brazilian news site G1 reported that a dozen were poisoned and some injured in less than a week in a nature reserve in Rio do Preto, in the state of Sao Paulo.
Others were stoned, persecuted or poisoned in different Brazilian cities, according to G1, which cites the association for the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking Renctas. Brazil has reported more than 1,700 cases and one death, according to WHO statistics. Worldwide, more than 28,100 cases and 12 deaths have been reported.
The virus demonstrated in several species
The term “monkeypox” was used when this virus was discovered in 1958 in monkeys in a laboratory in Denmark, but the virus has been demonstrated in different animal species, especially rodents. The first human case was detected in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
This virus can be transmitted from animals to humans, but the recent explosion of cases around the world is due to human-to-human transmission during close contact, said Margaret Harris.
People “definitely shouldn’t prey on animals,” he said, stressing that the best way to slow the spread of the virus was to recognize the symptoms, get help from a doctor and take “precautions to prevent transmission.”
The WHO denounces the stigma
The group most affected by the epidemic are men who have sex with men. The WHO calls not to stigmatize infected people.
“Any stigma … will increase transmission, because if people are afraid to say they’re infected, they won’t seek treatment and they won’t take precautions,” said Margaret Harris.
The WHO triggered its highest alert level at the end of July in order to strengthen the fight against the disease.
The most common symptoms are fever, muscle aches, loss of energy, and swollen lymph nodes, followed or accompanied by a rash.
Source: BFM TV
