London, June 6 (BNA): British health officials announced 77 cases of monkeypox on Monday, bringing the total to more than 300 cases across the country. To date, the UK has the largest identified prevalence of the disease outside of Africa.
More than two dozen countries that have not previously identified cases of monkeypox have reported 780 cases, the World Health Organization said on Sunday, a more than 200% increase in cases since late May. No deaths from monkeypox have yet been identified outside of Africa.
So far this year, there have been more than 1,400 cases of monkeypox and 63 deaths in four countries with outbreaks — Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo and Nigeria — according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus’s genetic sequence has not yet shown any direct link to the outbreak outside Africa.
The World Health Organization said the sudden and unexpected discovery of monkeypox in several countries “indicates that there may have been an undetected transmission for some unknown time followed by recent amplifier events.” , according to AP reports.
The World Health Organization estimated that the risk to global health posed by monkeypox was “moderate”, saying this was the first time that many cases and clusters had been reported worldwide.
Until last month, the disease was not known to cause major epidemics outside Central and West Africa, affecting mostly people in rural areas who were in close contact with infected wild animals.
The ongoing outbreak of monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, including Canada, Australia, Israel and the United States, marks the first time the disease has been known to spread among people without previous travel links to Africa.
insult