In disappointing news, scientists advising the World Health Organization on monkeypox announced that the chance of stopping the spread of the disease is dwindling as the number of cases doubles every two weeks.
The number of injuries is rising rapidly
The World Health Organization in Europe expects the number of infections to reach more than 27 thousand by the second of August in 88 countries, up from 17,800 cases in about 70 countries at the latest count.
The infection persists for a long time
Scientists from around the world told Reuters that making forecasts beyond this period is more complex. They added that the spread of the infection is expected to continue for several months and possibly longer.
“We’ve got to get ahead of that…it’s clear that the chance of doing that is dwindling,” said Anne Rimwin, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles and a member of the WHO’s expert panel on monkeypox.
Unprecedented step
The committee met last week to determine whether the outbreak constitutes a global public health emergency, and a majority of members voted against the move.
However, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared a state of emergency anyway in an unprecedented move.
Health experts said that the measures resulting from this announcement must be urgent, including increasing vaccinations, examinations, isolating the infected and monitoring contacts.
Mutations in the virus?
It is noteworthy that the world has largely ignored the presence of the disease in parts of Africa for decades, but cases of infection began to appear in May outside the countries where it is endemic.
Experts say that the current spread may lead to mutations in the virus that make it more effective in spreading between humans.
It is noteworthy that German scientists released a study on Tuesday that found mutations in one of 47 cases of infection, and concluded that they may help the virus spread more easily.
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