Key Points
- A total of 257 confirmed cases have been reported from 23 member states that are not endemic for the virus
- The agency expects more cases to be reported as surveillance in endemic and non-endemic countries expands
Monkeypox constitutes a "moderate risk" to overall public health at global level, the World Health Organization said on Sunday, after cases were reported in countries where the disease is not typically found.
"The public health risk could become high if this virus exploits the opportunity to establish itself as a human pathogen and spreads to groups at higher risk of severe disease such as young children and immunosuppressed persons," WHO said.
As of 26 May, a total of 257 confirmed cases and 120 suspected cases have been reported from 23 member states that are not endemic for the virus, the health agency said in a statement. There have been no reported fatalities so far.
WHO also said that the sudden appearance of monkeypox at once in several non-endemic countries suggests undetected transmission for some time and recent amplifying events.
The agency added that it expects more cases to be reported as surveillance in endemic and non-endemic countries expands.
"The vast majority of reported cases so far have no established travel links to an endemic area and have presented through primary care or sexual health services," the UN agency said.
On Friday, Sylvie Briand, WHO's epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief, acknowledged that the monkeypox cases found in recent weeks outside of 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," she said in a briefing to countries on the "unusual" spread of the virus.
Monkeypox is related to smallpox, which killed millions around the world every year before it was eradicated in 1980.
But monkeypox is much less severe, with a fatality ratio of three to six per cent. Most people recover within three to four weeks.
The initial symptoms include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and chickenpox-like rash.
While many of the cases have been linked to men having sex with men, experts stress there is no evidence it was a sexually transmitted disease. Rather, it seems to be transmitted by close contact with an infected person who has blisters on their skin.
There is not much in the way of treatment, but some antivirals developed against smallpox exist, including one that was recently approved by the European Medicines Agency against smallpox.
Vaccines developed for smallpox have also been found to be about 85 per cent effective in preventing monkeypox.
However, since smallpox has not posed a threat in more than four decades, most people under the age of 45 have not received the vaccine, and the supplies of the jabs are today very limited.
