Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Vaccines containing the Monkeypox vaccine are ready for use at a medical center in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
BRUSSELS – The European Union’s health commission is urging the bloc’s governments to step up their efforts to combat the region’s growing monkey epidemic, which it says is “the epidemic of the most recent cases.”
In a letter to the EU’s 27 health ministers obtained by The Associated Press, the EU’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, called Wednesday for “reinforced, coordinated and coordinated action.”
“There is no time for complacency and we must continue to work together to control the outbreak,” he wrote.
Last week, the World Health Organization declared the monkeypox epidemic a global emergency. It is the WHO’s highest warning level but the name does not mean that the disease is highly contagious or fatal. Similar announcements were made about the Zika virus in 2016 in Latin America and ongoing efforts to eradicate polio, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Kyriakides said Bloc’s priorities at this time should include increasing awareness and reporting of cases and preventing the spread of the virus.
The European Commission, the Bloc’s chief executive, has received the purchase of $160,000 worth of drugs to prevent the disease and Kyriakides said two procurement channels are preparing for the purchase of some jabs and the antiviral drug Tecovirimat.
Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and western Africa for decades, it was not known to cause major outbreaks outside the continent or spread among people until May, when authorities noticed multiple outbreaks in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 16,000 monkeypox cases have been reported in 74 countries since May. So far, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where the deadly virus is spreading, especially in Nigeria and Congo.
WHO’s top monkey specialist, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, said that 99% of all monkey cases outside of Africa were in men and of those, 98% involved men sleeping with men.
While Kyriakides urged EU ministers to increase their communication with risk and risk groups, he said that the group of men who have sex with men “should not be targeted, abused or stigmatized because of the epidemic.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed without permission.
