Geneva, August 26: The number of reported monkeypox cases worldwide has dropped by 21% in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.
While last week (August 15 to August 21) the number of reported cases worldwide decreased by 21%, new cases increased in the Americas with intense transmission, the director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Americas has replaced Europe as the region with the highest number of cases – more than two-thirds – of newly confirmed monkeypox infections worldwide in recent weeks, the WHO said. In the early stages of the outbreak, the European region reported the highest number of infections, but over the past 4 weeks the Americas accounted for around 60.3% of new cases globally compared to 38.7% for Europe.
As of Monday, ten countries had reported the highest cumulative number of cases worldwide. These are the United States, Spain, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Peru and Portugal. Together, these countries accounted for 88.9% of reported cases worldwide.
“There are signs that the epidemic is slowing in Europe, where a combination of effective public health measures, behavior change and vaccination are helping to prevent transmission,” Tedros said.
“However, in Latin America in particular, insufficient awareness or public health measures combine with a lack of access to vaccines to fan the flames of the epidemic,” he said.
WHO data shows that the monkeypox epidemic continues to affect young men, with 98.2% of cases being in men with a median age of 36. Of the infections of those who reported having a sexual orientation, 95.8% were men who had sex with men, and the majority of these infections were likely acquired while partying with sexual contact .
WHO encourages all countries to conduct studies on the effectiveness of monkeypox vaccines while improving access to these vaccines. (UNITED)