“Monkeypox”, or monkey pox, continues to proliferate throughout the world and more particularly in Europe. The WHO is due to meet very soon for a new emergency committee. In the meantime, France is implementing vaccination for the most vulnerable people
Contaminations with monkeypox are constantly increasing and since 1er January 2022 nearly 6000 cases have been reported worldwide. In France, 721 cases were confirmed by Public Health France on Friday July 8. Figures that worry the World Health Organization (WHO), which must meet for a new emergency committee no later than the week of July 18.
“I continue to be worried about the scale and the spread of the virus” which now has more than 6,000 cases in 58 countries, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO.
Europe: epicenter of contamination
In a press release, the WHO noted a 77% increase in cases since its last update on the situation on June 27. 59 countries have reported infections, fatal or not.
These reports are in eight out of ten cases made by European countries. The UK, Spain and Germany are the worst affected in the world and currently have more than 1,000 cases each.
The UN agency is particularly concerned because “this is the first time that local transmission of monkeypox has been reported in newly affected countries, with no epidemiological link to countries that have already reported monkeypox in West or Central Africa”.
Implementation of vaccination
Faced with the spread of “Monkeypox”, the High Authority for Health (HAS) therefore recommended “that preventive vaccination be offered to the groups most exposed to the virus”.
The people concerned are mainly homosexuals, transsexual people, professionals working in places of sexual consumption. It may also be offered on a case-by-case basis by professionals.