Monkeypox outbreak can be eliminated in Europe, WHO says

World Health Organization officials said, Tuesday, that it is possible to eradicate the outbreak of monkeypox in Europe, highlighting evidence that the number of cases is slowing in a few countries.

There are encouraging signs of a steady weekly decline in the number of cases in many European countries, including France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Britain, as well as a slowdown in some parts of the United States, despite the scarcity of a vaccine. supplies.

“We believe we can eliminate the ongoing transmission of monkeypox from human to human in the United States [European] “To move forward towards eradicating the disease … we need to urgently intensify our efforts,” said WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge.

The launch of the monkeypox vaccine in Scandinavian Bavaria was affected by a limited supply of the syringe, which has also been approved for smallpox prevention, although regulators are taking steps to expand existing stocks.

US, European Union and British regulators have supported changing the way the vaccine is given by injecting less vaccine into the skin, five times more than the doses that can be used from a single vial.

In addition to the vaccine supply crisis, given the time it takes for a vaccine to be deployed and to become effective, it appears that the important factors behind the slowdown are early detection, which leads to patients self-isolating sooner, and behavioral changes, Catherine Smallwood, an emergency officer and director of the monkeypox incident at the World Health Organization, said. In Europe at a press briefing.

“We have some good anecdotal evidence that people – especially men who have sex with men in particularly at-risk groups – are more familiar with the disease.”

More than 47,600 confirmed cases have been reported in 90 countries where monkeypox is not endemic since early May. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

Canada’s top public health official, Dr. Theresa Tam, said on August 12 that Canada has so far deployed 99,000 vaccines to provinces and territories. She said it was “too early to tell” if cases were slowing in Canada, although there could be “some early signs” that they are not increasing at the same rate as they were at the start of the outbreak.

there now 1,228 cases of monkeypox across Canadawith the bulk of it in Ontario and Quebec, Tam said Canada will soon move to wastewater testing in different parts of the country to better track the spread of the disease, and build upgraded infrastructure to monitor COVID-19 during the pandemic.

COVID-19, polio cases expected to rise

Meanwhile, cases of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses are also expected to spike in the fall and winter, as is usually the case in the colder months, WHO officials said.

Smallwood said the preventive measures that kept seasonal flu at bay in 2021 and 2020, for example, are no longer in place — so it may not be a typical flu season this year.

Separately, polio, a deadly disease that crippled tens of thousands of children each year, is spreading in London, New York and Jerusalem for the first time in decades, spurring vaccination campaigns.

The cases appear to be associated with so-called vaccine-derived polio, which is rarely caused by the use of an oral polio vaccine containing attenuated live virus.

After children are vaccinated, they excrete the virus in their faeces for a few weeks. In unvaccinated communities, this can lead to the spread of disease, which may turn into a harmful version of the virus.

While countries such as Britain and the US no longer use this live vaccine, others are using it – particularly to stop outbreaks – allowing polio to spread globally.

Siddhartha Datta, a vaccination expert at the World Health Organization in Europe, said the evidence suggests that the polio virus detected at all three sites is genetically related.

But what remains to be investigated is whether there are links around the cases, he said.