Alert to the increase in reported cases of the disease, the US President noted that this form of smallpox “is something everyone should be concerned about.”
On the sidelines of his Asian tour this Sunday, Joe Biden warned that the effects of the spread of monkeypox, which had been detected in a dozen European countries, including France, as well as in Australia, Canada and the United States, could be “logical “.
The American President, who wanted to leave South Korea for Japan, said this Sunday that he had not been fully briefed by American health authorities on the United States’ “exposure level” to this virus.
A virus “everyone should be worried about”
“But it’s something everyone should be concerned about,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One for the flight to Tokyo.
“If it spread, it would matter,” he added.
Monkeypox, a less dangerous cousin of smallpox, eradicated some forty years ago, causes a high fever and quickly progresses to a scabbing rash, especially on the face. There is no treatment, but this viral infection will heal on its own.
At least eight European countries had reported cases as of Friday, including France, the WHO said, as well as Australia, Canada and the United States, countries where its presence is uncommon. It is present in normal times in 11 African countries considered “endemic”.