The World Health Organization (WHO) said the ongoing monkeypox outbreak currently poses a moderate risk to global public health in a statement earlier this week. The health agency has confirmed more than 550 cases across 30 countries on Wednesday, with most cases appearing in Europe and North America.
"Currently, the overall public health risk at global level is assessed as moderate considering this is the first time that monkeypox cases and clusters are reported concurrently in widely disparate WHO geographical areas, and without known epidemiological links to non-endemic countries in West or Central Africa," the global health agency said.
What is monkeypox?
Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis--a virus transmitted to humans from animals--with symptoms similar to that of the now eradicated smallpox virus. The name monkeypox comes from the initial scientific discovery of the virus in monkeys in 1958 by Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first identified human case was in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The virus is transmitted from person to person through close contact with lesions, body fluids, and respiratory droplets. Monkeypox has a wide incubation period--the number of days between infection and symptoms--that is typically between 6 to 13 days, but can range from 5 to 12 days, according to the WHO.
Monkeypox symptoms are usually flu-like at first, including fever, headache, muscle pain, chills, and fatigue, before infectious lesions begin to form on the body.
The fatality rate for monkeypox is estimated to be between 1% and 10%, which is much lower than smallpox's rate of 30%. The WHO said that the virus responsible for the current outbreak are associated with a fatality rate at the lower end of that spectrum, with most people fully recovering in two to four weeks.
Why are health experts concerned?
The recent monkeypox outbreaks so far as atypical to how the virus usually occurs, according to the WHO, as they are popping up in countries where the virus does not usually circulate.
The WHO is concerned that collective immunity in the global population against viruses in the smallpox family is lower since smallpox was eradicated through worldwide mass vaccinations in the 1980s.
Most cases reported so far have been detected in the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal. There have also been cases in Canada and Australia, as well as the United States. The WHO noted that most cases have occured in men who have sex with men, but anyone can catch monkeypox through close physical contact.
The WHO stated that public health risk could become high is the virus mutates enough to become a human pathogen and spreads to groups at higher risk of severe disease like children and those with compromised immune systems.
The agency noted that the current risk for individuals in the general public is low, but "immediate action from countries is required to control further spread among groups at risk, prevent spread to the general population and avert the establishment of monkeypox as a clinical condition and public health problem in currently non-endemic countries."
