“It is highly likely that other countries will identify cases and further spread of the virus,” the UN health agency said.
Apart from isolating patients, some hospitalizations have been reported.
The WHO listed non-endemic countries reporting the highest number of cases as Britain (207), Spain (156), Portugal (138), Canada (58) and Germany (57).
In addition to Europe and North America, cases have also been reported in single figures – Argentina, Australia, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
A case of monkeypox in a non-endemic country is considered an outbreak.
The WHO said, “Some countries are reporting that a new generation of cases is no longer visible only among known contacts of previously confirmed cases, suggesting that the chain of transmission is through undetected circulation of the virus.” Leaving.”
“Although the current risk to human health and the general public remains low, the public health risk may be greater if this virus exploits the opportunity to establish itself as a widespread human pathogen in non-endemic countries,” it said. In the outbreak of the disease. Update.
“WHO assesses the risk globally as this is the first time that multiple monkeypox cases and clusters have been concurrently reported in non-endemic and endemic countries.”
The WHO said the vast majority of cases to date have been presented through sexual health or other health services and have primarily involved men who have had sex with men.
The organization noted that many cases did not present the classical clinical picture for monkeypox: some described pustules appearing before fever-like symptoms, and lesions at different stages of development – both of which are unusual.
The WHO said there were no deaths from the outbreak in non-endemic countries, but cases and deaths from endemic areas continued.
The WHO lists the endemic states as Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gabon and Ivory Coast, plus Ghana where it has been identified only in animals.
There were 66 deaths in the first five months of 2022, from the first seven of those countries.
Last week the WHO convened more than 500 experts and more than 2,000 participants to discuss monkeypox knowledge gaps and research priorities.
Experts stressed the need for clinical studies of vaccines and treatments to better understand their effectiveness, and called for rapid research into disease epidemiology and transmission.
