WHO: Monkeypox infections in the world jump by 20%

Director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that nearly 7,500 new cases of monkeypox were recorded last week, an increase of twenty percent over the previous week.

“Almost all the cases were recorded in Europe and the Americas,” Ghebreyesus said in a webinar hosted by the Swiss city of Geneva.

As of August 16, about 36,412 laboratory-confirmed cases of monkeypox were recorded in the world, and 179 probable cases, including 12 deaths, worldwide.

Ghebreyesus stressed that “the main focus of all countries should be to ensure their readiness to confront monkeypox, stop the transmission of infection and use effective public health tools,” noting that “vaccines may also play an important role in controlling the outbreak of the disease. There is a great demand for vaccines in many countries particularly from the most affected ones.”

Inas Abdulkareem