Europe: Belgium has made the confirmation about one more case of monkeypox, which has taken the overall tally of cases to ten, with other probable infections identified, recorded by the Sciensano public health institute on Tuesday.
On Saturday, the ninth case of monkeypox virus was discovered, and one more infection has since been confirmed, according to Sciensano’s newest statistics. In Belgium, all diseases have thus far been detected in men between the ages of 28 and 43.
The majority of the incidents have been related to Antwerp’s Darklands fetish festival, which took place in early May. Others were discovered in patients who had recently been overseas (to Spain or Portugal); the source of infection in one case has yet to be determined.
Moreover, in the previous week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) mentioned in the statement that it sees “no cause for alarm,” as the disease does not pose a threat to the general public, as per to the director of the epidemic risk department at WHO, Sylvie Briand.
“It is not like Covid-19,” she stated. Along with this, while these nations should act quickly to contain the spread of monkeypox and share data about their vaccine stockpiles, the World Health Organisation emphasises that there is currently no requirement for mass vaccination.
In addition, despite calls for calm from both the Belgian & international health authorities, pandemic preparedness chief Sylvie Briand has alerted that the “unusual” outbreak of the virus could be “the tip of the iceberg” but that it could also be generally contained with the proper means.
“It is not a disease that the general public should be worried about. It is not like coronavirus,” the official highlighted on May 27.
Furthermore, most of people already have a strong level of safety against the monkeypox virus because of the high levels of smallpox vaccination in the west. The two viruses belong to the same family.
