Monkeypox, current cases could be just the tip of the iceberg: the WHO alarm

The approximately 200 cases of monkeypox detected in recent weeks, in countries where the virus does not normally circulate (in Italy we have a dozen), they could be “just the tip of the iceberg”. To use this expression is theWorld Health Organization (WHO), which in any case asks us to “not give in to panic”. “We don’t know if we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Sylvie Briand, director of WHO’s global infectious risk preparedness department, during a presentation to the organization’s member states on the “unusual” spread of the virus. Experts are trying to determine what caused this “unusual situation” and the preliminary results show no variation or mutation in the monkeypox virus, she added. So “it is still possible to stop its spread”. “If we put the right measures in place, we can probably contain it easily,” Briand said.

The WHO alert comes as Europe works for the centralized purchase of ad hoc vaccines and antivirals and in Italy the Sacco hospital in Milan has isolated the monkeypoxvirus responsible for the epidemic. An important result, as Letizia Moratti also said, as it will be possible to test the activity of antiviral drugs and test the antibody response of patients who have contracted the infection and of the portion of the population vaccinated against the smallpox virus. The Minister of Health Roberto Speranza also spoke about monkeypox in the past few hours: “I understand the concern, but it is a completely different situation, incomparable to the one we have already experienced with Covid. Our surveillance and monitoring network, both at the European level and at the national level, it has been activated and therefore we must follow it with great attention ”.

For the moment “there is no need for a large mass immunization campaign”said WHO expert Rosamund Lewis, always talking about monkeypox. The World Health Organization reiterated that contagion occurs mainly from “skin to skin, face to face” contacts, so “contact tracing and isolation” remain the best ways of containment.