Rome, 23 July 2022 – Global alert for monkeypox. WHO has officially declared it as global health emergency. Therefore, after the Covid coronavirus also theorthopoxvirus of monkeypox, or monkeypoxis recognized as a new threat to public health worldwide. The global emergency declaration is the highest level of health alert and was delivered this afternoon by the Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
From today’s meeting of the WHO Committee – which voted 6 in favor and 8 against in declaring monkeypox a global health emergency – it emerged that “the risk posed by monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, with the exception of the European region where we evaluate the risk as high“. Director General Tedros, who has the last word in the global emergency declaration, then added:” There is also a clear risk of further international dissemination. So, in short, we have a outbreak that spread rapidly all over the world, through new modes of transmission, of which we know too little and which meet the criteria of the International Health Regulations. For all these reasons, I have decided that theglobal epidemic of monkeypox it represents a health emergency of international interest “.
Summary
To date, the cases reported are over 16,000 in 75 countries with 5 deaths, when a month ago there were 3,040 cases in 47 countries. Since early May, when monkeypox was detected outside of African countries where it is endemic, the disease has affected more than 16,836 people according to the July 22 update of the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC ).
Now with the highest level of health alert declared, the WHO has released a series of recommendations that will have to be followed in the member countries, among which “intensify the surveillance measures and public health; strengthen clinical management and prevention and infection control in hospitals and clinics; speed up the search on the use of vaccinestherapies and other tools “.
A pediatric case of monkeypox was described yesterday, July 22, in a child from age less than 10 years in the Netherlands. The little patient had arrived in an emergency room in Amsterdam. What is striking in the story of the baby patient infected with monkeypox is the fact of not being able to trace the source of the infection, which is classified as unknown.
Today, however, i American centers for the control of diseases detected for the first time two cases of monkeypox in childrenthe. In a statement, the CDC indicated that one of the infected children resides in California since less than 2 years, while the other is located in the United States but usually does not reside in the country. Health officials indicated that both cases are related and that it is very likely that the children were infected at home by transmission from a family member. Both have symptoms but are in good health and receiving treatment.
The current known cases of monkeypox, over 16,000 in 75 countries, “probably represent the tip of the iceberg. It is likely that they are 5-6 times more: we are therefore close to 100,000 real cases. Italy remains among the top 10 countries, with about 400 cases. These are impressive numbers. “To make the point is Andrea Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa: “Nobody wants to be alarmed, but be careful to underestimate the problem. It would be appropriate to leave now with an important vaccination campaignaddressed to young males, otherwise in September we risk having tens of thousands of diagnosed cases and as many under trace “.
“Extend the vaccine for human smallpox with the indication also for monkey smallpox seems to me appropriate – comments Bassetti, the day after the go-ahead Imvanex smallpox vaccine of the European Medicines Agency – it is evident that a more specific vaccine would be needed, but at this moment it may be okay to broaden the indication “.” Perhaps the name monkeypox makes us think of something far from us – reflects the infectious disease specialist – it would be more appropriate to say that it is smallpox of the skin, since it typically gives skin lesions. At the beginning the problem was underestimated, in Italy but also internationally, and in a little over 2 months we arrived at an impressive number of cases, there had never been so many before “.