Europe: A maximum of 52 confirmed cases of monkeypox have been registered so far, the health institute Sciensano made the announcement in Belgium. With about 1,500 cases in the continent, Europe is the Epicentre of the outbreaks, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) is concerned about the further spread of the virus.
Currently, Belgium has 24 cases in Brussels, another 24 in Flanders, as well as 4 in Wallonia, with all the affected persons being men between 20 and 57 years. One of them was reportedly hospitalised because of the isolation measures.
The World Health Organisation says Europe is the Epicentre of the monkeypox virus outbreak, and the organisation is concerned about the risk of further spread. WHO Europe chief executive Hans Kluge stated, “More than 1,500 cases have been reported in 25 European countries or 85% of the global number.
Moreover, the disease has existed in Central and West Africa for some time but appeared in Europe a few weeks ago.
Additionally, infections have now been reported in Australia, North and South America and Asia. Together with the disease in Europe, this concerns about 1,600 cases.
According to the WHO staffer Catherine Smallwood, more research is required into how the monkeypox virus spreads. The primary way of transmission seems to be prolonged skin-to-skin contact, such as during sex. Advice to people who have the virus is not to have sex at all and to use a condom after healing.
Along with this, the WHO further emphasised that European nations should not stock up on smallpox vaccines en masse. This happened during the COVID-19 pandemic when in many poorer countries, people were not yet vaccinated.
Furthermore, the EU has already ordered more than 100,000 vaccine doses against monkeypox.
