Monkeypox has likely spread under the radar “for some time”, says WHO

SWITZERLAND: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Wednesday that hundreds of Monkeypox cases have surfaced beyond the African countries where the disease is typically found, warning the virus has likely been spreading under the radar.

“Investigations are ongoing, but the sudden appearance of Monkeypox in many countries at the same time suggests there may have been undetected transmission for some time,” World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

The UN health agency’s top monkeypox expert Rosamund Lewis said that the appearance of so many cases across much of Europe and other countries where it has not been seen before “is clearly a cause for concern, and it does suggest undetected transmission for a while”.

“We don’t know if it is weeks, months or possibly a couple for years,” she said, adding that “we don’t really know if it is too late to contain”.

Monkeypox is related to smallpox, which killed millions around the world every year before it was eradicated in 1980.

– INDIA TODAY