The growing global outbreak of monkeypox cases is sexual transmission can probably be traced to sexual activity at two raves in Europe, a top expert has said.
Dr David Heymann, a senior adviser to the World Health Organisation, said the outbreak is best described as ‘random event’.
Dr Heymann said: ‘We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission.’According to the WHO, the cases are mainly spreading through sexual contact between men. The chief of the WHO’s smallpox research team said: ‘We’ve seen a few cases in Europe over the last five years, just in travelers, but this is the first time we’re seeing cases across many countries at the same time in people who have not traveled to the endemic regions in Africa.’The United Nations’ Aids agency has warned that racist and homophobic fearmongering could undermine efforts to combat the virus.
‘Experience shows that stigmatising rhetoric can quickly disable evidence-based response by stoking cycles of fear, driving people away from health services, impeding efforts to identify cases and encouraging ineffective, punitive measures.’Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London.
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