Monkeypox tally crosses 200, spread across 20 countries: WHO

Monkeypox cases have risen to 200 globally, as more cases have been reported and spread across 20 countries, the World Health Organisation said on Friday. The health body described the so-called epidemic as containable and proposed creating a stockpile to equitably share the limited vaccines and drugs available worldwide. During a public briefing on Friday, the UN health agency said there is still a lot to know about the Monkeypox outbreak to understand how the current epidemic arose but there is no evidence that any genetic changes in the virus are responsible for the unprecedented epidemic, PTI reported.

The first sequencing of the virus shows that the strain is not different from the strains we can find in endemic countries and (this outbreak) is probably due more to a change in human behaviour, said Dr Sylvie Briand, WHO's director of pandemic and epidemic diseases.

How the Monkeypox outbreak began

Earlier this week, a leading adviser to the World Health Organization described the unprecedented outbreak of the rare disease monkeypox in developed countries as a random event that might be explained by risky sexual behaviour at two recent mass events in Europe.

That marks a significant departure from the disease's typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates, and outbreaks haven't spilt across borders.

On Friday, Spanish authorities said the number of cases there had risen to 98, including one woman, whose infection is directly related to a chain of transmission that had been previously limited to men, according to officials in the region of Madrid.

Doctors in Britain, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the US and elsewhere have noted that the majority of infections to date have been in gay and bisexual men or men who have sex with men. The disease is no more likely to affect people because of their sexual orientation and scientists warn the virus could infect others if the transmission isn't curbed.

As countries including Britain, Germany, Canada and the US begin evaluating how smallpox vaccines might be used to curb the outbreak, WHO said its expert group was assessing the evidence and would provide guidance soon.

What is Monkeypox?

Monkeypox is a virus that originates in wild animals like rodents and primates and occasionally jumps to people. It belongs to the same virus family as smallpox

(With PTI inputs)