The monkeypox infection “is at the beginning of an unexpected and worrying path of spread. It is urgent to intervene, because it will not go away on its own and the cases continue to grow”. This was underlined by virologist Ilaria Capua, director of the One Health Center of Excellence at the University of Florida, in a tweet commenting on her speech yesterday at Gr1.
The 16 thousand cases of Monkeypox virus reported in the world “are many”, underlines Capua, after the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international importance (Pheic) on Saturday. This virus “needs to be kept under control” and a shared strategy is needed, the expert warns, because “you cannot face an emergency of this kind by thinking of managing it each in your own way”. In the ongoing epidemic, the disease “is spreading in some communities of men who have sexual relations with other men”, adds Capua, specifying that “this explosion of contagion through sexual transmission is something that was not well focused: in 2008 there were cases in the United States, but fewer than 10 “. Now the infection “is being studied, trying to understand why it spreads within some communities”, adds the specialist.
Capua recalls that “the virus has rodents as its reservoir, not monkeys (it was found by chance in laboratory monkeys). The virus circulates in rodent populations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa”, but “we may have shortly – warns the expert – monkeypox reservoirs even among European rodents “.