Saturday | July 23, 2023
The World Health Organization (WHO) has finally announce Monkeypox a global health emergency. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, said Monkeypox “represents a public health emergency of international concern”.
SABC reported on Saturday July 23, that there are about 14, 000 cases and 10 deaths resulting from Monkeypox.
According to the Centers for Diseases and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, Monkeypox is seen as “a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus” and “is part of the same family of viruses as smallpox”. Among the common symptoms of Monkeypox, the CDC mentions:
- Fever,
- Headache,
- Muscle aches and backache,
- Swollen lymph nodes,
- Chills,
- Exhaustion.
As far as what could be the cause or what fuels Monkeypox, WHO indicated on its overview that:
“Most reported cases so far have been identified through sexual health or other health services in primary or secondary health-care facilities and have involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men“.
On its June 17, 2022 update, the global health watchdog intimated that as of “1 January 2022, cases of monkeypox have been reported to WHO from 42 Member States across five WHO regions (the Regions of the Americas, Africa, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific)”.
Further, it related that from “15 June, a total of 2103 laboratory confirmed cases and one probable case, including one death, have been reported to” the organization [WHO].
The world is reeling from Covid-19 which broke out in 2020 and became a worldwide pandemic. Although the world has mastered various strategies to deal with it including vaccines, Covid-19 continues to affect many parts of the globe. On Thursday, US President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19. The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced that he was fine and was being observed by medics and thus, would remain under medical supervision while continuing to work in isolation.
The Monkeypox is an outbreak that has spread globally within a short space of time, Dr Ghebreyesus added. WHO emphasized that it is persisting with surveilling its spread and will be keeping the world up-to-date.