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Business News/ News / World/  Here's how monkeypox turned into global public health emergency in just 4 months
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Here's how monkeypox turned into global public health emergency in just 4 months

More than 45,000 monkeypox cases are scattered across 100 or more countries around the world, mostly in Europe and North America.

More than 45,000 monkeypox cases are scattered across 100 or more countries around the world. (HT)Premium
More than 45,000 monkeypox cases are scattered across 100 or more countries around the world. (HT)

More than 45,000 monkeypox cases are scattered across 100 or more countries around the world, mostly in Europe and North America. The monkeypox infection started with just a handful of cases in early May, but now it has escalated into a global public health emergency, according to news agency Bloomberg.

However, a report issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that the number of monkeypox cases reported globally dropped by 21% in the last week, reversing a month-long trend of rising infections and a possible signal the outbreak in Europe may be starting to decline.

The U.N. health agency reported 5,907 new weekly cases and said two countries, Iran and Indonesia, reported their first cases. Cases in the Americas accounted for 60% of cases in the past month, WHO said, while cases in Europe comprised about 38%. It said infections in the Americas showed “a continuing steep rise."

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the continent had 219 new cases reported in the past week, a jump of 54%, most were in Nigeria and Congo, the agency said.

In early July, just weeks before the agency declared the international spread of the disease to be a global emergency, WHO’s Europe director said countries in the region were responsible for 90% of all laboratory confirmed cases of monkeypox.

British health authorities said last week after seeing a decline in the number of new cases getting reported daily that there were “early signs" the country’s monkeypox outbreak was slowing.

Since monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were identified in May, WHO and other health agencies have noted that its spread was almost exclusively in men who have sex with men.

Monkeypox has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades and experts suspect the outbreaks in Europe and North America were triggered after the disease started spreading via sex at two raves in Spain and Belgium.

WHO’s latest report said 98% of cases are in men and of those who reported sexual orientation, 96% are in men who have sex with men.

Among the monkeypox cases in which the HIV status of patients was known, 45% were infected with HIV. In a first, a 36-year-old man in Italy tested positive for Monkeypox, COVID-19 and HIV at the same time.

Experts pointed out that this is the first known co-infection case of the 3 viruses and it is yet to be understood whether the combination may aggravate the patient's condition. His case was published in the Journal of Infection on August 19.

Symptoms of Monkeypox, COVID-19, HIV coinfection

On returning from a trip to Spain, the man developed fever, a sore throat, fatigue, headache and inflammation of the groin. Three days after the symptoms appeared, he tested positive for COVID.

Next, he started developing severe skin rashes, then the formation of pustules. On visiting a hospital's emergency department for the symptoms, he was referred to the infectious disease unit for admission.

By that time, he had spots and skin lesions in various body parts, including the perianal region and modest enlargement of the liver and spleen and painful enlargement of the lymph nodes too were noticed, a report by Newsweek said.

Further, the test reports confirmed that he has contracted Monkeypox infection and also tested positive for HIV. Moreover, sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome confirmed that he was infected with the Omicron sub-variant BA.5.1 as well.

"This case highlights how Monkeypox and COVID-19 symptoms may overlap, and corroborates how in case of co-infection, anamnestic collection and sexual habits are crucial to perform the correct diagnosis," the researchers said in their case report.


(With inputs from agencies)






















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Published: 26 Aug 2022, 10:18 AM IST
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