The World Health Organization WHO underlined on Tuesday that the current monkeypox epidemic is not linked to monkey species. In Brazil, primates were among the victims of poisoning in the past week.
“People need to know that the infections we are currently seeing are people-to-people,” said WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris. The virus can indeed transfer from animals to humans, but the current outbreak is due to close contact between people, Harris said.
The spokeswoman was questioned about the role of primates after Brazilian news portal G1 reported about a dozen monkey poisonings in less than a week in the Rio do Preto nature reserve in Sao Paulo. Monkeys were also confronted with violence in Brazilian cities, according to G1 that invokes the association against animal trafficking Renctas.
More than 1,700 infections have been diagnosed in Brazil, according to WHO statistics. One person died as a result of an infection. Worldwide, the counter stands at more than 28,100 cases and twelve deaths.
The term monkeypox originated when the virus was discovered in monkeys in a Danish lab in 1958. However, the virus has since been found in several animal species, especially rodents. The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.