In the United States, an outbreak of monkeypox was declared a public health emergency. This happened after a sharp increase in the number of cases of the disease, writes the BBC.
The solution must accelerate the spread of vaccines, treatments, and federal resources to contain the disease.
Currently, 6 600 patients have been recorded in the USA. A quarter of those cases were reported in New York state, which last week declared a state of emergency due to the virus. California and Illinois also declared states of emergency.
In total, more than 26 000 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed worldwide.
Monkeypox is a rare infection that is mostly spread by wild animals in West and Central Africa. It is possible to become infected by contact with an infected animal, but scientists are not sure what exactly with a monkey — in their opinion, smallpox is transmitted to humans by rodents. A person can catch monkeypox if they are bitten by an infected animal or if a person comes into contact with animal fluids: blood, feces, saliva, etc. You can also get infected if you eat undercooked meat. At the same time, the disease spreads very rarely between people and is easily tolerated.
This type of smallpox is characterized by fever and rashes. There is no special vaccine against monkeypox, but scientists are sure that the vaccine against common smallpox is also effective. In addition, it can be injected after contact with an infected person — this will greatly facilitate the course of the disease.
- Monkey pox has already been detected in some countries neighboring Ukraine, such as Poland and Romania. The chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine, Ihor Kuzin, believes that the risks of this disease for Ukraine are quite low. At the same time, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, declared the monkeypox outbreak "a public health emergency".