Sylvie Briand, director of global infectious disease preparedness at the World Health Organization (WHO), said in a briefing to countries on monkeypox on May 27 that about 200 cases have been recorded in recent weeks, and that the virus "is not a problem. common" spread.
"We don't know if what we're seeing is the tip of the iceberg," she admitted.
Since the UK first confirmed and reported a confirmed case of monkeypox on May 7, the WHO has received reports of nearly 200 cases from various countries, all of which were found far away from the country where the virus was originally endemic.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recorded 219 cases.
Monkeypox was originally popular in some countries in West Africa and Central Africa, but recently it has suddenly appeared in more than 20 countries around the world, including the United States, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and more than ten European Union countries.
"We are still at the very beginning of this," Briand told delegates from member states at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland.
"We know there will be more cases in the next few days," she said, but stressed that there is no need for the public to panic. "This is not a disease the public should be worried about, this is not COVID-19 or other fast-spreading diseases. ".
Briand also said that experts are trying to determine what caused the "unusual situation" to occur.
She added that preliminary investigations did not appear to show that the virus had changed or mutated.
"Now we have a good chance of stopping the contagion, and if the right measures are taken now, it is possible to control the spread easily," she said.
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