The spread of the monkeypox virus appears to be accelerating. So far, 780 cases of monkey pox have been confirmed in 27 European and other countries where the disease is not normally found. This is reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). This is a threefold increase in one week.
The virus appeared in England at the beginning of May. Most infections occur in the United Kingdom. 207 people have been infected there. Spain comes in second with 165 infections, followed by Portugal, where 138 contracted the virus. Forty infections were known in the Netherlands on 2 June.
People who have contracted monkey pox usually recover on their own within three to four weeks. The virus is transmitted through close contact. The first symptoms are often fever, swollen lymph nodes and skin rash.
Wild stories about monkey pox
In recent weeks there has been a lot of attention for the advancing virus, but there are also wild stories going around. For example, the monkey pox virus is actually shingles and according to some people is a side effect of the corona vaccine. Recently, the chairman of the drug authority Ton de Boer warned against these unscientific theories. “Let’s keep a cool head and stay away from scaremongering and monkey stories,” he recently wrote in a column. “The viruses that cause monkey pox, Covid-19 or shingles are unrelated. And not with the corona vaccines either.”
Although the WHO anticipates that the disease will spread further, a global pandemic is not expected. This is because the monkey pox virus does not spread as easily as, for example, Covid-19.
Close physical contact
You can get monkey pox from close physical contact with someone who has symptoms. The virus can also spread through droplets from blisters or from the oral cavity. However, dispersion via floating droplets in the air does not occur. It is not clear whether people who are asymptomatic can also spread the virus.
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Number of monkey pox infections tripled in a week