Forty days after the United Kingdom was notified of its first case monkey poxOn Thursday (16) the world reached the threshold of 2000 infected with the virus, in an outbreak that is increasing day by day.
Data from the Global.health initiative’s real-time monitoring, from researchers from universities such as Harvard and Oxford, showed 2,048 confirmed cases by the end of the morning.
England tops the list, with 504 diagnosed. Then comes Spain (313), Portugal (241) and Germany (269).
However, monkeypox is spreading outside Europe. Canada has already recorded more than 150 infections. In the United States, there are 84.
The disease has been recorded on every continent except Antarctica.
a Brazil has six confirmed diagnoses: In Sao Paulo (four), Rio Grande do Sul (one), and Rio de Janeiro (one). Eight other suspected cases are under analysis, according to the Ministry of Health.
All the Brazilian patients have recently traveled to European countries with a large number of cases.
Amid the progression of the disease, classified as ‘uncommon and of concern’, The World Health Organization (WHO) will meet at 23 To decide whether monkeypox should be declared a public health emergency of international concern, similar to what happened with Covid-19, Ebola and Zika.
“It is clear that we do not want to wait for the situation to spiral out of control to announce a situation of international concern,” Ibrahima Sosi Fall, the WHO’s assistant director-general for emergencies, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, researchers around the world are trying to understand how the highly transmissible virus spreads quickly.
The European arm of the World Health Organization has predicted that cases will continue to increase during the summer, at which time there is more partying and travel.
Transmission occurs through close contact, such as hugs, kisses and sexual contact, although it is not yet classified as an STD (a sexually transmitted infection). However, even sleeping in bed with an infected person can be enough to contract the virus.
Many countries are already stockpiling traditional smallpox vaccines (the only one available but effective against monkeypox), with the goal of initially immunizing frontline health workers.
It has not yet been noticed that this is a serious disease; On the contrary, the condition resolves spontaneously after about three weeks.
The disease is characterized by an initial period of malaise, with a high temperature and body aches, and enlargement of the lymph nodes (swells), followed by skin lesions.
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