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Monkeypox cases spread 'tip of the iceberg', says WHO

Monkeypox cases spread tip of the iceberg, says WHO
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New Delhi: The World Health Organisation has warned that 200 monkeypox cases found in recent weeks outside countries where the virus usually circulates could be just the beginning.

"We don't know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg [or] if there are many more cases that are undetected in communities," Sylvie Briand, WHO's epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief, acknowledged on Friday in a briefing to countries.

Since the UK first reported a confirmed monkeypox case on May 7, nearly 200 cases have been reported to the UN health agency in countries far from the states where the virus is endemic.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has put the number of such cases at 219.

Mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak.

Endemic in a number of west and central African nations, monkeypox cases have suddenly been detected in more than 20 other countries around the world, including the US, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and nearly a dozen EU countries.

The Spanish health ministry said on Friday that 98 cases had been confirmed there so far, while the UK currently counts 90 verified infections.

Portugal has meanwhile registered 74 confirmed cases, health authorities said on Friday, adding that all the occurrences are in men, mainly aged below 40.

Argentina confirmed the first two cases of monkeypox in Latin America on Friday.

"We are still at the very, very beginning of this event," Briand told member state representatives attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva. "We know that we will have more cases in the coming days," she said, but stressed there was no need to panic.

"This is not a disease the general public should be worried about. It is not Covid or other diseases that spread fast." Monkeypox is related to smallpox, a deadly disease that was eradicated in 1980. But monkeypox is much less severe, with a fatality ratio of 3-6%. Most people recover within three to four weeks.

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