WHO says monkeypox outbreak can still be contained as risk of transmission 'low'

The monkeypox outbreak, which has now been reported in 16 countries along with several other regions of the world, can still be contained and the overall risk of transmission is “low”, said the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday. Dr Rosamund Lewis, head of the smallpox team, which is part of the WHO Emergencies Programme said that what the experts know from the monkeypox virus and its modes of transmission, this outbreak “can still be contained”. He also said that stopping the outbreak is the “objective of the United Nations (UN) health agency and its member states.   

“What we know from this virus and these modes of transmission, this outbreak can still be contained; it is the objective of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Member States to contain this outbreak and to stop it,” said Lewis. 

“The risk to the general public therefore appears to be low, because we know that the main modes of transmission have been as described in the past,” he added. 

According to the latest data obtained by the WHO’s member states till May 22, over 250 confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox have been reported in 16 countries and other regions of the UN health agency. WHO has also determined that the monkeypox outbreak has been transmitted primarily by close skin-to-skin contact even though the virus can also be passed by breath droplets and contaminated bedding. 

“We don’t yet have the information as to whether this would be transmitted through body fluids,” Dr Lewis noted, before urging potentially at-risk groups to “be mindful” when in close contact with others. In an effort to warn against stigmatising those who fall sick from the virus, the UN health agency insisted that the disease “can affect anyone and (it) is not associated with any particular group of people,” Dr Lewis also told journalists in Geneva.

WHO's stocks of smallpox vaccine to be ‘revisited’

According to the UN, even though the vaccination against smallpox provided protection against monkeypox in the past, people younger than 40 to 50 years of age in the present day, may be more susceptible to monkeypox infection as smallpox vaccination campaigns ended globally after the disease was eradicated in 1980. 

Although WHO Member States asked WHO to keep stocks of smallpox vaccine in case of a new outbreak of the disease, Dr Lewis explained that “it’s been 40 years and these stockpiles may need to be refreshed - they certainly need to be revisited - and WHO has been working on that and has been looking at that also now.”

Image: AP