This Saturday The World Health Organization declared the Monkeypox virus a public health emergency of international concern.
So What Exactly Does It Mean? It means that the WHO now views the outbreak as a large threat to global health and because of the international response is needed to prevent the virus from spreading further and potentially escalating into a pandemic.
Now, the U.N. agency declined last month to declare a global emergency in response to monkeypox. However, infections have increased substantially over the past several weeks, which eventually made WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus push the issue to the highest alert.
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“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little,” Tedros said. “For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”
As we previously reported, one man in California claimed he contacted COVID-19 and the Monkeypox at at the same time! Mitcho Thompson, a cannabis salesman in Sebastopol, says he has been infected with COVID and monkeypox at the same time in the first known case in America. He told NBC News Bay Area that he tested positive for the pandemic virus back in late June after feeling ‘wiped out’. Days later, he noticed red lesions that started to appear across his back, legs, arms, and neck, which he said doctors diagnosed as monkeypox.
What Is Monkeypox?
According to the CDC, “Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and monkeypox is RARELY fatal. Monkeypox is not related to chickenpox.” The CDC added that “The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970. Prior to the 2022 outbreak, monkeypox had been reported in people in several central and western African countries
As NBC News reports, more than 2,300 cases had been confirmed as of Wednesday afternoon, up from 700 on July 8. So far, case have been reported in 43 states and the territory of Puerto Rico. Washington, D.C., leads the nation with about 19 cases per 100,000 residents. That is followed by the states of New York, Illinois and Georgia.
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