Based on data from the WHO, which records all confirmed cases, until today, August 31, 50,496 infections and 16 deaths had been reported. In the US, as in Europe, the rate of infections appears to be beginning to slow.
More than 50,000 cases of monkeypox have been recorded since early May, mostly in North America and Europe, the World Health Organization announced today.
Based on data from the WHO, which records all confirmed cases, until today, August 31, 50,496 infections and 16 deaths had been reported. In the US, as in Europe, the rate of infections appears to be beginning to slow.
“These figures confirm what we have been saying from the beginning: with the right measures, this outbreak can be stopped,” WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. He noted that although in many countries of the American continent there is an increasing trend, at the same time there is a “decrease trend in Canada”. US health authorities had also earlier reported that the rate of infections in the US was slowing slightly.
Outside of Africa, where the disease is endemic in some countries, monkeypox primarily affects men who have had sex with other men. To stop the spread of the virus, the WHO recommends targeted vaccination, tracing close contacts of patients and limiting the number of sexual partners. In any case, however, monkey pox is not considered a sexually transmitted disease, since it can affect anyone. Transmission can occur by contact with the skin but also with the infected clothes or sheets of the patient.
The WHO stressed that a certain community of people should not be stigmatized, because this may force its members to hide their illness, not to seek medical help and thus continue to spread the virus.
“We don’t have to live with monkey pox” if we take the right measures, Tedros stressed.
RES-EMP
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