Ginebra.- The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Wednesday that the outbreak of smallpox in Africa has become a global public health emergency, sounding the alarm over the worsening situation.
“The emergency committee met today and advised me that it believes the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted this advice,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.
According to the latest data updated by the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 14,250 infections and 456 deaths have been reported so far in 2024. These figures represent a 160% increase in infections compared to last year and a reality check due to the lack of treatments and vaccines across the continent.
The outbreak was focused in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the strain has crossed borders and is found in ten more countries. For the first time, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and the Central African Republic have reported cases in the same week, which is causing some concern about tourist influx to these countries.
According to a study in the journal Science, this new variant is more lethal than the one that caused the epidemic in 2022, the year in which the virus jumped to the European continent. However, vaccines managed to keep the virus under control in Europe (only 260 cases this year), unlike in Africa, which does not have these treatments.
The most common symptoms of monkeypox are rashes and blisters on the face, hands, feet and groin, as well as on the genitals with this new strain. Infected people also suffer from high fever, muscle pain, back pain, headaches and swollen glands.
According to the Mayo Clinic, transmission of the mpox virus can occur in several ways. The virus is transmitted from animals to people through direct contact with the blood, body fluids, or skin or mucous membrane lesions of infected animals. In Africa, evidence of monkeypox virus infection has been found in many animals, including monkeys, rodents (such as Gambian rats and squirrels), and other small mammals.
Person-to-person transmission is less common, but can occur through direct contact through sexual intercourse, contact with skin lesions of an infected person, or contact with objects contaminated by the virus, such as bedding.
Diagnosis of monkeypox can be difficult, as many other diseases (such as chickenpox, measles, and bacterial skin infections) can resemble monkeypox. However, lymphadenopathy during the prodromal phase of the disease may be a distinctive clinical feature to distinguish mpox virus from smallpox. Diagnosis is confirmed by a number of laboratory tests, including serologic and molecular tests, as well as virus isolation in culture.
There is no specific treatment for monkeypox virus infection, which is primarily symptomatic and supportive, and may include pain and fever relief as well as prevention of secondary infections. The Mayo Clinic maintains that antivirals developed to treat smallpox, such as tecovirimat, may also be effective for monkeypox, but more research is needed to confirm their efficacy.
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2024-08-16 16:08:57
