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Hot News: WHO Calls Emergency Meeting As Monkeypox Spreads

Monkeypox is showing signs of appearing in many countries around the world. Facing the severe development of the epidemic, the World Health Organization yesterday (May 20) had to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the risks of this disease. 

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Monkey smallpox 

Name of image: Monkey smallpox 

On May 20, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an emergency meeting to discuss the outbreak of monkeypox due to the rapidly increasing cases. 

The content of the meeting was to discuss how the virus is transmitted, the high rate of transmission among gay and bisexual men, and the situation around vaccination. 

A day earlier, Health Canada also confirmed two cases of monkeypox infection after the Quebec provincial government announced that it was conducting epidemiological investigations of 17 other suspected cases. According to Canada’s chief public health officer – Theresa Tam, monkeypox appearing in many places outside Africa is an unusual signal. 

“Monkeypox is spread by close contact, close contact between family members. We have not found a case of infection with a history of travel to Africa, where the disease occurred. It is disheartening that so many cases have been detected outside Africa.” 

According to statistics, more than 100 cases of monkeypox infection have been recorded in Europe. In recent weeks, some countries, such as Portugal and Spain, continuously recorded several instances of the disease. A few days earlier, a matter of monkeypox was also registered in Massachusetts, USA, after traveling to the Canadian province of Quebec. 

To date, more than 1,300 suspected cases of monkeypox and 58 deaths have been reported worldwide. This is considered part of an outbreak of illness caused by a new virus. This month, cases and suspicions of monkeypox have also been reported in many countries across Europe and North America. Most recently, on May 20, Australian authorities announced that they had recorded the first case of monkeypox after returning from the UK. Patients in Europe, North America, and Australia spread for the first time with no known epidemiological link in West and Central Africa. 

Monkeypox, which occurs mainly in West and Central Africa, is a rare viral infectious disease similar to human smallpox, although milder. Humans with the monkeypox virus were first identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1970s. The number of cases in West Africa has increased over the past decade. Symptoms commonly seen in patients are fever, pain, lymphadenopathy, and chickenpox. There are currently two strains of monkeypox: the Congo strain, which causes more severe disease with a mortality rate of up to 10%, and the West African music, which is mild, with a mortality rate of less than 1%. 

According to the World Health Organization, there is no vaccine against monkeypox yet, but the smallpox vaccine is up to 85% effective in preventing the disease. 

Assessing the risk that monkeypox could become a pandemic like Covid-19, Amesh Adalja, a medical expert at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said the possibility of this is low: “I think smallpox is smallpox. Monkeys are not capable of causing a pandemic because the infectious process of the disease is not strong. After all, it is not contagious during the incubation period. In addition, we have a smallpox vaccine – a tried and tested measure that can potentially stop the disease.” 

 As a precaution, the UK Health Security Agency has said it has made the smallpox vaccine available, which can also prevent monkeypox, to healthcare workers and people who may have been exposed to the disease./. 

According to Hong Nhung – Anh Tuan/VOV1 

Source:  https://vov.vn/the-gioi/xuat-hien-benh-dau-mua-khi-o-nhieu-nuoc-who-hop-khan-post945284.vov