The recent outbreak of Monkeypox has made its way to Latin America, with Mexico and Argentina having confirmed one case each this week. One WHO official has stated that currently, the organization is “not concerned about a global pandemic”

By Khaila Gentle

BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 1, 2022

Multiple clusters of the Monkeypox viral infection—known to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions—have been identified in over a dozen countries where the virus is not usually reported, including Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and several nations across Europe and North America. As a result of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a Disease Outbreak News update to raise awareness and inform response efforts to the smallpox-like virus.

According to the WHO, the Monkeypox situation “is evolving” and it is expected that more cases will be identified as surveillance of the virus in non-endemic countries expands. At present, the public health body says that while there are still many unknowns related to the recent spike in cases, the risk to the general public is still low. 

On Saturday, May 28, health officials in Mexico reported the country’s first confirmed case—a 50-year-old permanent resident of New York who Mexico’s deputy health secretary, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, reported has been kept in isolation and is in stable condition. And as of Sunday, May 29, there have been over 200 confirmed Monkeypox cases in countries where the virus is not endemic. Most of those cases have not been linked to travel to endemic nations.

When asked whether the outbreak has the potential of becoming a global pandemic, Technical Lead for Monkeypox at the WHO, Rosamund Lewis stated “we don’t know, but we don’t think so.”

Lewis also stated that, while the organization is not concerned about a global pandemic, there is currently a window of opportunity for the world to collectively stop the outbreak.

According to a report by CNBC, Sylvie Briand, the Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention at WHO, stated that the organization does not want people to panic and think that the viral outbreak is like COVID-19.

“This Monkeypox disease is not COVID-19; it is a different virus,” she said.

In its Disease Outbreak News update, the WHO outlined ways in which the public can protect itself from the virus, including being aware of symptoms, practicing good hygiene, and practicing safe sex.

The Monkeypox virus causes usually mild flu-like symptoms quite similar to those of now-eradicated smallpox, including a pustular rash, fever, headaches, muscle aches, swelling, and back pain. It is transmitted through lesions in the skin, bodily fluids, or contaminated materials such as bedding. Its incubation period is normally 6 to 13 days. Unlike the Varicella virus, which causes chickenpox, lesions caused by the Monkeypox virus appear mostly on the face, arms, and legs as well as the eyes, mouth, and genitals.

Named after having been identified in monkeys in a Danish lab in 1958, Monkeypox is endemic in several areas in Central and West Africa. While the first human case was identified in 1970, it remained mostly unnoticed until the final stages of the eradication of smallpox. Health experts have yet to learn more about its genetic makeup apart from the fact that it is a DNA virus, meaning it is unlikely to be transmitted or mutate as easily as RNA viruses such as COVID-19. 

According to the WHO, the smallpox vaccine appears to be 85% effective at preventing Monkeypox.

As cases in non-endemic nations continue to rise, the African continent has reported up to three times as many cases in just this year, Associated Press News reports. And while nations like the US and Germany have begun to deploy hundreds of vaccines, Dr. Adesola Yinka-Ogunleye of Nigeria’s Monkeypox working group has noted that such measures have never been employed in the countries most affected by the virus.

“It’s a bit uncomfortable that we have a different attitude to the kinds of resources we deploy depending on where cases are,” noted Dr. Jimmy Whitworth, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who called this a “moral failing”.