Europe[/B] is at the epicentre of the spread of monkeypox, the European office of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.
"Europe remains the epicentre of this growing wave, 25 countries have reported more than 1.500 cases, or 85% of the global total," said Hans Kluge, the director of WHO Europe, which brings together 53 countries, some of them in central Asia, at a press conference today.
The priority for WHO is to halt transmission.
"The scale of this outbreak presents a real danger: the longer the virus circulates, the more it expands its scope and the more the disease establishes itself in countries where it is not endemic," Kluge warned.
The virus, which usually circulates in central and western Africa, is now present in Australia, the Middle East, North America and South America, in addition to Europe, and more than 1,600 cases have been reported.
The circulation of the virus, which is mainly transmitted through prolonged contact, should not however lead to the cancellation of the public events planned for this summer, according to the WHO official.
"These events represent a great opportunity to raise awareness among young people, who are sexually active and very mobile," Kluge noted, stressing that the public events are "an opportunity to () reinforce our commitment."
Also noting that the majority of cases reported to date are men having sex with men, he warned against stigmatisation, stressing that "monkeypox virus is not associated with any particular group".
Information on the presence of the virus in the semen of patients
Meanwhile, WHO Europe's head of monkeypox case management at WHO Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said today that the WHO is considering information on the presence of this virus in the semen of patients, investigating the possibility that it may be transmitted through sexual contact.
However, the WHO official reiterated that the virus is mainly transmitted through close interpersonal contact.
In recent days, scientists have detected DNA of the virus in the semen of a few monkeypox patients in Italy and Germany, but according to Smallwood, it is not known whether the recent information means that the monkeypox virus can be transmitted through sexual contact.
"This may be something that we did not previously know about this disease," she noted and stressed: "We really need to focus on the most common mode of transmission and we clearly see that this is linked to skin-to-skin contact."
At present the WHO does not recommend mass vaccination for the disease. European health authorities yesterday, Tuesday, ordered more than 100,000 doses of a smallpox vaccine for monkeys that has been approved in the US and is considered effective against the virus.
Source: Cyprus Times
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