According to the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “These signs confirm what we have said constantly from the start: with the appropriate measures, this outbreak can be stopped”.
Le Monde with AFP
More than 50,000 cases of variole of the monkey have been recorded worldwide since the start of the epidemic in May – it mainly affects North America and Europe – announced on Wednesday August 31, the ‘World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the dashboard of the organization which lists all the cases confirmed, there were 50,496 cases and sixteen deaths on August 31. In the United States as in Europe, the number of infections seems to slow down.
“These signs confirm what we have said constantly from the start: with the appropriate measures, this outbreak can be stopped,” said WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday during a press conference.
He noted that several countries on the American continent still record an increase in the number of cases but he was delighted “to see a continuous downward trend in Canada”. The United States Health Authorities also reported a slight slowdown on Wednesday. For Europe, Mr. Ghebreyesus highlighted the good results obtained in Germany and the Netherlands.
Maintain surveillance and targeted vaccination
Outside Africa, where the variole of the monkey is endemic in a certain number of countries, the disease affects most of men with sex with men. To eliminate the circulation of the virus, the WHO recommends maintaining the measures of surveillance, targeted vaccination, identification of contact cases and commitment to men with sex with men by recommending in particular to limit the number partners.
The variole of the monkey is not in the current state of knowledge considered as a sexually transmitted disease and everyone can contract it. Contact skin with direct skin but also infected sheets or clothes are vectors of transmission of the disease. WHO also insists a lot about the need to avoid any stigma of a community, which could lead its members to hide the disease, not to be treated and continue to spread it.
The WHO had triggered its highest alert level on July 24 to prevent the epidemic from becoming more magnitude and that it will settle permanently. “We are not obliged to live with the variolate of the monkey”, if we take the right measures, said the director general of the WHO.