Monkeypox

The monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. The classification is the highest alert that the WHO ...

Monkeypox does not spread as easily as Covid and we already have a vaccine (developed for smallpox) that offers good protection. Whether we can stop monkeypox can be stopped is as much a societal and cultural challenge as it is about the virus. Dr Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus. "The WHO's assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region, where we assess the risk as high," he added. Dr Tedros said the emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency. The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and follows a worldwide upsurge in cases.

The decision will empower the agency to take additional measures to try to curb the virus, which has now spread to more than 70 countries.

The Central African Republic and Nigeria — two of the countries were monkeypox is endemic — have reported five deaths so far in 2022. Governments must take this more seriously and work together internationally to bring this outbreak under control,” Golding said in a statement. “Nine and six is very, very close,” Tedros said in a news conference called to announce the decision. Four of the six were in men who have sex with men. Monkeypox infections lead to painful lesions and rashes, including vesicles forming on the palms. The same committee met just one month ago and declined to declare a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC.

The UN health agency's declaration could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease - and also worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.

The WHO has also already been providing advice and updates since the outbreak began in early May. The head of the World Health Organization has declared the monkeypox outbreak to be a global health emergency - the highest alarm it can sound. The head of the World Health Organization has declared the monkeypox outbreak to be a global health emergency - the highest alarm it can sound.

The WHO last issued a global health emergency in response to Covid-19 in January 2020.

The U.S. is already distributing tens of thousands of doses of a vaccine called Jynneos in an effort to quash the outbreak. ACAM2000 uses a mild virus strain in the same family as monkeypox and smallpox to confer immunity. Men who have sex with men are at the highest risk right now, as the majority of transmission has occurred in the gay community. The CDC and WHO have said the rash is easily confused with common sexually transmitted diseases. Tedros warned stigma and discrimination are violations of human rights that will undermine the public health response to the outbreak. The WHO has said the international community did not invest enough resources in fighting monkeypox in Africa before the global outbreak. In 2020, the agency declared Covid a pandemic in an effort to warn complacent governments about the "alarming levels of spread and severity" of the virus. In contrast to Covid-19, monkeypox is not a new virus. Before a global health emergency is declared, the WHO's emergency committee meets to weigh the evidence and make a recommendation to the director general. She said public health authorities had a window of opportunity to contain the outbreak. The WHO last issued a global health emergency in January 2020 in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and two months later declared it a pandemic. Historically, monkeypox has spread at low levels in remote parts of West and Central Africa where rodents and other animals carried the virus.

Highest possible designation used for first time since Covid pandemic began as 16000 cases detected across the world.

The decision on Saturday from WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebereyesus came despite the organization's emergency committee being unable to reach consensus on ...

While many global health experts welcomed Tedros’s decision to take the unusual step of declaring an emergency in the face of differing advice from the scientists advising him, the fact that the virus has spread in Africa for decades without significant attention also has been highlighted. The report of the emergency committee that failed to reach consensus was also released on Saturday, revealing the key reasons for several experts being against the declaration of an international public health emergency. The latest figures show that more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported to the WHO during the outbreak, which has left health officials scrambling to secure vaccine doses. He also warned that the declaration shouldn’t be used as a way to implement coercive surveillance on groups most affected by the virus. Tedros has made a set of recommendations for countries depending on how the outbreak is developing in their regions. On Friday, the European Medicines Agency recommended that the smallpox vaccine Imvanex’s license be extended to cover monkeypox.

The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the international monkeypox outbreak a global emergency, a decision that underscores concerns about ...

The WHO’s move is not likely to have a direct effect on the U.S. response. On Friday, health authorities reported the first two U.S. cases of monkeypox in children. They also noted scant evidence of substantial transmission beyond men who have sex with men and concerns that a health emergency would fuel discrimination against the LGBT community in countries where homosexuality is criminalized. Experts believe close contact during male-to-male sexual activity is a major driver of transmission in the ongoing outbreak. Monkeypox has spread across the world at an unprecedented rate in the last two months. The decision means the world is now confronting two viral diseases that have crossed the extraordinary threshold of being declared health emergencies: covid-19 and monkeypox.

US identifies first cases of monkeypox in children amid 14000 cases in more than 60 countries and five deaths in Africa.

The fatality rate in previous outbreaks in Africa of the current strain has been around 1 per cent, but so far this outbreak seems to be less lethal in the non-endemic countries. The WHO has also already been providing advice and updates since the outbreak began in early May. There have now been more than 14,000 cases reported, and five deaths, from 71 WHO member states.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that now qua...

Most people recover without needing medical attention, although the lesions may be painful. “The window has probably closed for us to quickly stop the outbreaks in Europe and the US, but it’s not too late to stop monkeypox from causing huge damage to poorer countries without the resources to handle it.” He added that the WHO’s emergency declaration could help donors like the World Bank make funds available to stop the outbreaks both in the West and in Africa, where animals are the likely natural reservoir of monkeypox. Some experts have questioned whether such a declaration would help, arguing the disease is not severe enough to warrant the attention and that rich countries battling monkeypox already have the funds to do so. To date, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where a more dangerous version of the virus is spreading, mainly in Nigeria and Congo. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that now qualifies as a global emergency.

The World Health Organization has declared monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the highest level of alert.

The declaration of another PHEIC should serve as stark reminder to world leaders of this modern reality and the weaknesses in our collective ability to prepare and respond. But governments must also support more research to understand why we are seeing new patterns of transmission, evaluate the effectiveness of our current tools and support the development of improved interventions.” The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the spread of monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the highest level of alert.

The declaration of the monkeypox outbreak as a global emergency is recognition of the need for worldwide efforts to investigate and prevent further spread ...

“This is an infection that is transmitted by close contact – touching skin, coughing and sneezing, sharing of utensils, bedding and so on. Professor Jimmy Whitworth, of LSHTM, said the continued spread of the disease indicates that measures which have put in place have not been sufficient to control the spread of the infection – but urged people not to worry too much. Dr Josie Golding, head of epidemics and epidemiology at the foundation, said: “With monkeypox cases continuing to rise and spread to more countries, we now face a dual challenge: an endemic disease in Africa that has been neglected for decades, and a novel outbreak affecting marginalised communities. Dr Meera Chand, director of clinical and emerging infections at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said the WHO declaration of an emergency “recognises the rapid spread of the virus globally, and the need for global coordination to investigate and prevent further transmission”. While a global emergency is WHO’s highest level of alert, the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal, and can be a call for more resources and attention to be focused on an outbreak. The declaration of the monkeypox outbreak as a global emergency is recognition of the need for worldwide efforts to investigate and prevent further spread of the disease, health experts have said.

It was his third try in five days. Andy's anal sores were internal; for patients to qualify for testing, C.D.C. guidelines required the appearance of lesions on ...

This was the first day of the first monkeypox vaccination site in the country. The event was organized in a hurry, publicized with a health-department press release that bled onto social media, and staged at midday on a work day, in Chelsea, one of the wealthier gay haunts in the city. One might suppose a pathogen outbreak elsewhere in the world would trigger a notification to local and state governments about the pathogen’s attributes, known treatments, and vaccines, and a plan for what to expect if cases are found in their jurisdiction. And if there’s a small number of tests (mainly in gay men), it’s no surprise that there’ll be a small number of confirmed cases (mainly in gay men), and that, therefore, the situation appears to be under control. The guidelines restricting who can be tested largely remain the same, but additional commercial labs around the country can now run monkeypox tests, and health-care providers can send samples to them directly. To enroll, a sick patient must find a physician who’ll review and sign onto a C.D.C. protocol that is, as Andy said, “a humble hundred and twenty-four pages long.” Andy’s primary-care doctor said that the protocol was too complicated for his practice. She listened to his symptoms, presumed he was positive, and had Andy tested the next day. Andy had to tap personal connections through his employer to find a physician to sign on. The first reported case was in 1970, in a nine-month-old boy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a place many associate with the words “gorillas,” “jungle,” and “war,” but which I associate with “family,” “comedy,” and “melodrama.” (Kinshasa, the capital, is my mother’s home town and where a huge portion of my family lives.) Monkeypox’s name conjures tales of illness emerging from the jungled heart of darkness to infect the world, but it likely didn’t originate in monkeys. The doctor felt the inflammation and wanted to help, Andy told me, but after conferring with an infectious-disease specialist, the doctor was told that Andy likely had S.T.D.s (even though he had tested negative days earlier) or something else was wrong. When internal lesions appeared, Andy rushed to the emergency room at N.Y.U. Throughout the night, he voiced his concerns about monkeypox and tried to persuade the doctor to check his anal lesions. Andy’s anal sores were internal; for patients to qualify for testing, C.D.C. guidelines required the appearance of lesions on the skin.

In the early days of the outbreak, Kevin Kwong was among several people who spent days in search of the right diagnosis.

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Two days after my symptoms began, the rash started as anorectal lesions – painful sores on my anus and rectum. Initially it was a stinging, itchy feeling. I ...

The day after I started the treatment, 13 July, I finally got a call from a contact tracer from the department of health, who said I may have been exposed to monkeypox on 26 June. I told her I already have monkeypox, and she asked me about my symptoms. So that was apparently how I was one of the lucky few to be invited for treatment. I did a video with someone in my PCP’s office and they said, “I think you should go to the ER.” The ER determined it was bacterial tonsillitis, and they gave me a round of antibiotics. The department of health would say, “Oh no, your PCP has to request treatment for you.” Then I would contact my PCP, and they were like, “We can bring the case to the department of health, but just so you know, they deny most of our requests, so don’t get your hopes up.” I knew the CDC had put out guidance around who should be considered for treatment, and that included people who had anorectal lesions, lesions in the throat and dermatological conditions, which I did. I had them on my skull, on my face, my arms, my legs, my feet, my hands, my torso, my back, and five just on my right elbow. It felt like I had three fissures right next to each other, and it was absolutely excruciating. I had all the symptoms of monkeypox and thankfully nobody questioned whether or not I should receive a test. I had a tele-health visit with my primary-care physician (PCP) and she agreed that I should get tested. I was told that it would be mild, and I was a completely healthy individual with no underlying conditions. I texted a friend: I’m just sitting here waiting for the rash to start. What I didn’t understand was how absolutely dismal testing capacity was: at that point, the city only had capacity to process ten tests a day.

The monkeypox virus spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions. WHO officials said on Saturday they were ...

A war of words broke out on Twitter between Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and his predecessor and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan over the cabinet approving an ordinance to bypass all the procedures for selling assets to foreign countries in order to prevent Islamabad from defaulting. An old video of the world's richest man, Elon Musk, saying that money has no power in itself, has gone viral as Elon Musk on Sunday posted a 'yes' to the video implying that he stands by his comment in the viral video. The monkeypox virus spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions. - The monkeypox virus spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions. Regional director of WHO South-East Asia Region, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, said the virus is spreading rapidly and to countries that have not seen it before. On Friday, the US identified its first two monkeypox cases in children.

Perspectives of clinicians treating patients with the disease. 24 July 2022. In just over two months a global outbreak of monkeypox in non-endemic countries ...

Even so, it is important to point out that MSM are currently at higher risk of contracting monkeypox because of the social and sexual networks in which the disease has been spreading the fastest. This will protect your health and the health of those you hold close. "Most people are looking for what they've been told to watch out for on social media -- so a rash -- but it's not what we always see. "At the beginning of May I had several patients presenting with what appeared to be ulcers. However, since then we have also seen others as a result of referrals from our sexual health clinic". Dr Francisco Silva is a General Practitioner in Lisbon, Portugal, who also works at a sexual health clinic in the city.

The monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern, the head of the World Health Organization said, overruling a divided expert ...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that the monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is a global emergency.

A person with monkeypox infection may pass on the infection to close contacts from the time they have symptoms until the rash is fully healed. If they do notice any such changes, they should contact their local STI Clinic (Sexually Transmitted Infection) or their doctor for advice. Close contacts need to monitor themselves for symptoms of monkeypox for 21 days. Anyone, regardless of their sexuality, can get monkeypox. This recommendation has also been made in other countries. Keep away from other people and do not engage in sexual contact until you have been seen.

The World Health Organization has declared monkeypox a public health emergency of global concern. From how it spreads to preventive measures, here's what ...

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