GENEVA, Aug 25 (BNA): The number of monkeypox cases reported globally has fallen by 21% in the past week, reversing a month-long trend of increasing infections and indicating that the outbreak in Europe has begins to decline. .
The UN health agency reported 5,907 new cases per week and said two countries, Iran and Indonesia, were reporting their first cases. The Associated Press (AP) reports that so far, more than 45,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 98 countries since late April.
The Americas accounted for 60% of cases in the past month, the World Health Organization said, while cases in Europe accounted for about 38%. She said infections in the Americas showed a “continuous sharp rise”.
At a press briefing on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that although there are indications that monkeypox outbreaks in Europe, which previously accounted for 90% of the world’s laboratory-confirmed cases, are slowing, the spread of the virus is now raising concerns. . in another place.
“In Latin America in particular, insufficient awareness or public health measures and a lack of access to vaccines combine to fan the flames of the outbreak,” Tedros said.
In late July, Tedros declared the unprecedented spread of monkeypox to dozens of countries a global emergency, although there was no consensus on his panel of experts.
The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the continent recorded 219 new cases in the past week, an increase of 54%. Most of them were in Nigeria and Congo.
British health authorities said last week that there were “early signs” that the outbreak of monkeypox in the country was slowing. The UK’s Health Security Agency downplayed the outbreak of monkeypox in the country last month, saying there was no evidence the once-rare disease was spreading beyond gay, bisexual or other men.
Since monkeypox outbreaks were identified in Europe and North America in May, the World Health Organization and other health agencies have noted that its spread has been almost exclusively in men who have sex with men.
Monkeypox has been endemic to parts of Africa for decades, and experts suspect an outbreak in Europe and North America after the disease began spreading through sex in two raves in Spain and Belgium.
The latest WHO report said 98% of cases are among men and of those who report sexual orientation, 96% are men who have sex with men.
“Of all reported types of transmission, sexual encounter was the most common,” the World Health Organization said.
Of the monkeypox cases in which patients were known to have HIV status, 45% were infected with HIV.
The World Health Organization has recommended that men at high risk of contracting the disease temporarily consider reducing the number of sexual partners and abstaining from group or anonymous sex.
Monkeypox usually requires skin-to-skin or skin-to-mouth contact with the infected patient’s lesions in order to spread. People can also become infected through contact with contaminated clothing or bed sheets.
With vaccine supplies globally limited, authorities in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom have begun rationing doses to extend supplies by up to five times.
The World Health Organization has advised countries with vaccines to prioritize immunization for those at high risk of contracting the disease, including gay and bisexual men with multiple sexual partners, and for health workers, laboratory staff and outbreak responders.
While Africa has reported the most suspected deaths from monkeypox, the continent has no vaccine supply except for a very small stock being tested in a research study in Congo.
“As we know, the situation with regard to getting monkeypox vaccine is very topical, but there are not enough doses of vaccines,” Director-General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, Evidio Aditiva, said this week. “More doses will likely be available, but due to challenges with manufacturing plants and an unexpected increase in monkeypox cases, a vaccine may not actually be available until 2023.”
AOQ