2023-11-24 16:08:02
LONDON (AP) — The United Nations health agency has confirmed sexual transmission of monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for the first time during the country’s largest outbreak on record, a worrying development that According to African scientists, it could make it more difficult to stop the disease.
In a statement issued late Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said a person living in Belgium who traveled to the DRC in March tested positive for monkeypox shortly thereafter. The WHO noted that the person “identified himself as a man who has sexual relations with other men” and that he had attended several underground nightclubs for gay and bisexual men.
Among their sexual contacts, five subsequently tested positive for monkeypox, the WHO added.
“This is the first definitive evidence of sexual transmission of monkeypox in Africa,” said Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist who serves on several WHO advisory groups. “The idea that this kind of transmission couldn’t happen here has been disproven.”
Monkeypox causes fever, chills, rash, and lesions on the face or genitals. Most people recover within several weeks without needing hospitalization.
Monkeypox has been endemic in parts of central or western Africa for decades, where it jumped from infected rodents to humans and caused limited outbreaks. Last year, epidemics caused mainly by sexual relations between gay and bisexual men in Europe reached more than a hundred countries.
The WHO declared the outbreak a global emergency and has recorded about 91,000 cases to date. He noted that there are dozens of “discreet” clubs in Congo where men have sex with each other, and that some travel to other parts of Africa and Europe. The recent outbreak of monkeypox is “unusual” and highlights the danger of the disease spreading widely among sexual networks, he said.
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