Monkeypox, the World Health Organization declares “theglobal health emergency“At a press conference, WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported that at the moment there are over 16 thousand cases in 75 countries.
REZZA – “The Ministry of Health, with a special ordinance, has already prepared, together with the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, the procedures for reporting individual cases” of monkeypox. This is what the Director General of Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gianni Rezza, said. “In Italy so far 407 cases with a tendency to stabilization have been recorded. The situation is under constant monitoring, but it is not believed that it should arouse particular alarmism“.
BASSETTI – “We have reached 15 thousand cases of monkeypox in more than 70 countries around the world, which probably represent the tip of the iceberg,” Andrea Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa, told time.news Health. “It is likely that they are 5-6 times more: we are therefore close to 100,000 real cases. Italy remains among the top 10 countries, with about 400 cases. These are impressive numbers“.” Nobody wants to alarm, but beware of underestimating the problem. That would be the case with start now with an important vaccination campaign, aimed at young malesotherwise in September we risk having tens of thousands of diagnosed cases and as many under trace “.
“Extending the vaccine for human smallpox with the indication also for monkey smallpox seems to me appropriate – comments Bassetti, in the aftermath of the green light from the European Medicines Agency -. It is clear that a more specific vaccine would be needed, but in this moment may be fine to broaden the indication “.
“Perhaps the name monkeypox makes us think of something far away from us – reflects the infectious specialist -. It would be more appropriate to say that it is smallpox of the skin, since it typically gives skin lesions. At first the problem is been underestimated, in Italy but also internationally, and in just over two months an impressive number of cases was reached, there had never been so many before“.