Monkeypox virus disease outbreak: New cases 'only tip of iceberg' but no urgent need for mass vaccinations, says WHO
Zee News
The global health body does not believe that the spread of the monkeypox virus outside of Africa requires mass vaccinations as measures like good hygiene and safe sexual behaviour will help control its spread, Reuters reported.
New Delhi: As the number of monkeypox cases continues to rise across Europe and North America, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the recent outbreak of the viral disease is "only the tip of the iceberg". The global health body, however, does not believe that the spread of the monkeypox virus outside of Africa requires mass vaccinations as measures like good hygiene and safe sexual behaviour will help control its spread, a WHO senior official told Reuters on Monday (May 23, 2022).
"The primary measures to control the (monkeypox) outbreak are contact tracing and isolation," Reuters quoted Richard Pebody, who leads the high-threat pathogen team at WHO Europe, as saying.
Pebody also told Reuters in an interview that immediate supplies of vaccines and antivirals are relatively limited.
His comments came amid the public health authorities in Europe and North America investigating more than 100 suspected and confirmed cases of the viral infection in the worst outbreak of the virus outside of Africa, where it is endemic.
While the US has said that it is in the process of releasing some Jynneos vaccine doses for use in monkeypox cases, Germany has said that it is assessing options for vaccinations. Britain, where the first European case was confirmed on May 7 in an individual who returned to England from Nigeria, has already started to offer a smallpox vaccine to some healthcare workers and others who may have been exposed to the monkeypox virus.
