GENEVA – More than 19,600 cases of monkeypox have been detected worldwide since the beginning of May, outside endemic areas in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday in its latest report of the situation, noting that the United States and nine European countries accounted for nearly 90% of the cases.
“Since January 1, 2022, cases of monkeypox have been reported in all six WHO regions,” the UN world health agency said, noting that as of July 29, a total of 19,691 Laboratory-confirmed cases, including five deaths, have been registered at WHO.
The disease has been reported in 78 countries so far and 70% of cases are concentrated in Europe, i.e. 13,800 cases and 30% in the Americas (5,400 cases).
Overall, the number of new cases reported each week worldwide increased by 60% during the week of July 18-24, with 4,407 cases compared to the week of July 11-7 (2,744 cases) . The global health agency considers the overall risk to be “moderate”.
Regionally, WHO considers the risk to be high in the European Region. This appears to be moderate in the African Region, the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia, while the risk in the Western Pacific Region is assessed as “low-moderate”.
According to the UN agency, this is the first time that cases and long-lasting chains of transmission have been reported in countries with no direct or immediate epidemiological link with endemic areas in West or Central Africa.
Over the past seven days, 35 countries have had an increase in the weekly number of cases. With more than 380 cases in a week, the biggest increase was reported in France. A dozen countries have not recorded any new cases in the past 21 days.
Meanwhile, seven countries listed their first case last week. These are the French island of Martinique, Costa Rica, Qatar, Thailand, Bermuda, Andorra and Japan.
According to the WHO, with 3,738 cases, Spain leads the ten most affected countries in the world. This is followed by the United States of America (3,581), Germany (2,540), the United Kingdom (2,432), France (1,837), the Netherlands (818), Canada (744), Brazil ( 696), Portugal (588) and Italy (426). Together, these ten countries account for nearly 90% of reported cases worldwide.
Since 1970, human cases of monkeypox have been reported in 9 countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. In 2022, as of July 27, 2022, 328 confirmed cases have been recorded in these countries with five deaths.
The monkeypox virus is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, or with materials contaminated with the virus. The disease is usually manifested by fever, rashes and swollen lymph nodes and can cause a range of medical complications.
