On Saturday July 23, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, decided to trigger a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, his highest level of alert.
The objective: to curb the outbreak of monkeypox cases, which now concerns 74 countries.
If just over 900 cases were recorded at the beginning of June, this infection now affects 17,000 people worldwide.
In three months, Europe has become the epicenter of this epidemic: more than 7,000 cases were counted last Monday, an increase of 50% in almost a week, according to figures from the American health authorities (CDC) .
In France, the latest update from Public Health France reported 1,567 confirmed cases, including 726 in Île-de-France.
That's 114 more cases than three days earlier.
Read alsoThe European Medicines Agency approves a vaccine against monkeypox
The analysis of the profiles contaminated for several months has made it possible to establish that this virus mainly affects men who have sex with men.
A study published Thursday in the scientific journal
New England Journal of Medicine
confirms that in 95% of recent cases, the disease was transmitted during sexual contact and 98% of those affected were gay or bisexual men.
Since July 8, France has been offering preventive vaccination for men “
at risk
”, that is to say men who have homosexual relations and with multiple partners.
The European Commission announced on July 18 the purchase of 54,530 additional doses of the vaccine from the Danish laboratory Bavarian Nordic.
Another challenge, according to the WHO: "
Protecting the dignity of the affected community
", by fighting against stigma and discrimination.
A distant cousin of human smallpox, but considered far less dangerous, monkeypox usually heals on its own after two or three weeks.
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