The Sunday Mail
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners are working to better understand the magnitude and cause of a global monkeypox outbreak, which is atypical as many cases are being reported in non-endemic countries that have not previously had significant spread among people with no travel to endemic zones.
“We must avoid having two different responses to monkeypox — one for Western countries which are only now experiencing significant transmission and another for Africa,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
“We must work together and have joined-up global actions which include Africa’s experience, expertise and needs. This is the only way to ensure we reinforce surveillance and better understand the evolution of the disease, while scaling up readiness and response to curb any further spread.”
Monkeypox was first detected in humans in 1970 in the African region and since then most cases have been reported in rural and rainforest areas.
For decades, only a few cases were reported sporadically.
Then in 2017, there was a sudden spike, with more than 2 800 suspected cases reported in five countries.
This surge continued, peaking in 2020 with more than 6 300 suspected cases, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounting for 95 percent of the total.
The numbers then dropped last year to around 3 200 suspected cases.
The reasons for these spikes are not fully known but may be due to deforestation and the encroachment of people into the habitats of monkeypox animal hosts.
“Africa has successfully contained past monkeypox outbreaks and from what we know about the virus and modes of transmission, the rise in cases can be stopped,” said Dr Moeti.
“It is critical that the continent has equal access to effective monkeypox vaccines and that globally we ensure vaccine doses reach every community in need. While parts of the continent might have built up some immunity against the disease, there are populations that are particularly vulnerable such as health workers and contacts of cases.”
Meanwhile, WHO does not believe the monkeypox outbreak outside Africa will lead to a pandemic.
It also added that it remains unclear if infected people who are not displaying symptoms can transmit the disease.
More than 300 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox — a usually mild illness that spreads through close contact and can cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions — have been reported in May, mostly in Europe.
The WHO is considering whether the outbreak should be assessed as a “potential public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC).
Such a declaration, as was done for Covid-19 and Ebola, would help accelerate research and funding to contain the disease.
Asked whether this monkeypox outbreak has the potential to grow into a pandemic, Rosamund Lewis, technical lead for monkeypox from the WHO health emergencies programme, said: “We don’t know but we don’t think so.”
“At the moment, we are not concerned of a global pandemic,” she said.
Once monkeypox has been contracted, the duration of the rash emerging and scabs falling off is recognised as the infectious period, but there is limited information on whether there is any spread of the virus by people who are not symptomatic, she added.
“We really don’t actually yet know whether there is asymptomatic transmission of monkeypox — the indications in the past have been that this is not a major feature — but this remains to be determined,” she said.
The strain of virus implicated in the outbreak is understood to kill a small fraction of those infected, but no deaths have been reported so far.
Most cases have cropped up in Europe rather than in the Central and West African countries where the virus is endemic, and are predominantly not linked to travel.
Scientists are therefore looking into what might explain this unusual surge of cases, while public health authorities suspect there is some degree of community transmission.
Some countries have begun to offer vaccines to close contacts of confirmed cases.
Also, the public has ben warned against purchasing and wearing second-hand clothes, especially those that come from countries experiencing monkeypox outbreaks. —Wires.
