Washington: The current monkeypox outbreak, which has infected 3,417 people in 42 countries, has been declared an epidemic by the World Health Network (WHN), a global collaboration of scientific and civic teams. The announcement comes ahead of a meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday to decide on the status of their monkeypox outbreak.Also read – Southwest Monsoon Outlook, Global Warming or a Coincidence?
Citing MonkeyPoxmeter, a website that tracks cases of infection in real time, WHN said there are now 3,417 confirmed monkeypox cases in 58 countries, and the epidemic is spreading rapidly across multiple continents. The WHN has called on the WHO and the National Disease Control and Prevention Organization to take immediate action to prevent monkeypox from becoming a disaster. Also read – Monkeypox in Nepal: Suspected MPXV virus deal in 27-year-old Kathmandu with international travel history
It said that although the mortality rate was much lower than that of smallpox, unless concrete global measures were taken to stop the spread, the infection would kill millions and leave many blind and disabled. Also read – The EU buys about 110,000 doses of the Danish vaccine to control the monkeypox
“The WHO urgently needs to declare its own Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) – the lesson of not declaring PHEIC as early as early January 2020 (COVID-19) should be remembered as a lesson in the history of what works late on epidemics.” . It could make sense for the world, “said Eric Fiegel-Ding, PhD, epidemiologist and health economist and co-founder of WHN, in a statement.
“There is no reason to wait for the monkeypox epidemic to spread further. All that is needed now is clear public communication about the symptoms, widely available testing and contact tracing with very little quarantine. Any delay only makes the effort harder and the consequences more serious, “added Yanir Bar-Yam, PhD, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute and co-founder of WHN.
So far most cases have occurred in adults, but any spread among children would lead to more serious cases and more deaths. Infection of animals, especially rats and other rats, even pets, will make it more difficult to prevent. Passive waiting will lead to this loss without any return benefit.
Monkeypox is a virus that has the potential to cause significant harm to people, including acute painful illnesses that may require hospitalization and can lead to death, skin blemishes, blindness and other long-term disabilities. The most susceptible to serious illness are children, pregnant women and people with immune systems.
