It begins when a disease spreads unexpectedly internationally and requires a coordinated response from countries. − The monkeypox virus, which originated in Africa, was neglected in that country and then caused a global epidemic in 2022. It is time to take decisive action to prevent history from repeating itself, said Prof. Dimie Ogoina, chair of the WHO committee dealing with this problem. This is the second time in two years that the WHO has sounded the alarm about monkeypox. The number of cases of the disease reported so far has already exceeded that of last year, with 15,600 patients and 537 deaths. These figures are probably an underestimate. Although the epicentre of the disease is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it is already clear that both new and old strains of the virus have begun to circulate internationally. According to WHO experts, this is mainly through sexual contact, but not exclusively.
The WHO Secretariat has described the risk to the DRC and neighbouring countries as high and to the rest of the world, including Europe, as moderate. On the Old Continent, the highest number of cases in the last two years have been recorded in Spain, France, Great Britain and Germany. According to the WHO, there have been 223 cases of the disease in Poland. Dr Hans Kluge, WHO director for Europe, stressed at a press conference on Tuesday that this is not a new pandemic. ©℗
