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The number of monkeypox virus cases in the world has surpassed 1,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who urged people to take extra precautions.
According to the CDC, as of June 6, 1,019 confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox had been reported in 29 countries.
According to CNBC, the United Kingdom has the most cases, with 302 suspected and confirmed infections, followed by Spain (198), Portugal (153), and Canada (80).
In response to the growing number of cases, the CDC raised its alert level to level 2, advising people to “take enhanced precautions” in order to halt the outbreak, which has spread to 29 non-endemic countries in the last month.
The highest level of alert, level 3, would advise against unnecessary travel.
The CDC also believes that the monkeypox virus may be airborne for “short distances,” and has advised people and healthcare workers in close contact to wear masks.
On its website, the CDC advises monkeypox patients to wear a surgical mask, “especially those who have respiratory symptoms.”
It also advises other members of the household to “consider wearing a surgical mask” when in the presence of the person with monkeypox.
According to the New York Times, health officials have not explicitly addressed the possibility of airborne transmission or the need for masks, but they have emphasized the role of large respiratory droplets that are expelled from infected patients and drift onto objects or people.
Furthermore, until recently, it was thought that the current outbreak was caused by a West African strain of the virus, which causes less severe illness than other variants and has a 1% fatality rate.
However, the CDC reported that at least two genetically distinct monkeypox variants are currently circulating in the United States, which has seen 30 cases to date.
“While they’re similar to each other, their genetic analysis shows that they’re not linked to each other,” said Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC’s high consequence pathogens and pathology division, at a press briefing.
McQuiston believes the two strains are the result of the virus spreading from animals to humans in Africa before spreading via person-to-person contact, according to the report.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1,400 suspected cases of monkeypox have been reported in African countries where the virus is endemic, with 56 people dying as a result.
Notably, no fatalities have been reported in the recent outbreak in countries other than Africa.
“This virus has been circulating and killing in Africa for decades,” said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a press conference in Geneva.
“It’s an unfortunate reflection of the world we live in that the international community is only now paying attention to Monkeypox because it has appeared in high-income countries.
“The communities that live with the threat of this virus every day deserve the same concern, the same care and the same access to tools to protect themselves,” he noted.
Source:OCN
