GENEVA | The WHO now lists 5,322 laboratory-confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide, an increase of more than 50% from the previous June 22 report for a single death, a spokesman for the WHO organization announced on Tuesday.
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“WHO continues to urge countries to pay special attention to cases of monkeypox to try to limit contagion,” Fadela Chaib said at a news conference in Geneva.
A second meeting of the WHO Emergency Committee on this topic after its first meeting on June 23 is currently not planned.
Health officials had ruled last week that the current outbreak of monkeypox cases, while worrisome, does not constitute a “public health emergency of international concern,” the organization’s highest alert level.
The number of cases has risen sharply in recent days: this latest assessment, from June 30, represents an increase of 55.9% compared to the previous count, which eight days earlier listed 3,413 cases.
Europe remains by far the worst-hit region by the virus, with 85% of cases, while 53 countries have now been affected.
Outside the countries of west and central Africa where the virus normally circulates, an unusual spike in monkeypox cases has been noted since May.
While the majority of identified cases involve men who have sex with men, “other vulnerable groups are also at risk,” the spokeswoman said.
“There have been some cases in children (and) people with compromised immune systems.”
Monkeypox has been known to humans since the 1970s and is considered to be much less dangerous and contagious than its cousin, smallpox, which was eradicated in the 1980s.
Monkeypox, which manifests itself in flu-like symptoms and skin rashes, usually goes away on its own after two or three weeks.