The monkeypox virus may have been spreading silently many years ago

For the first time in history, the world faced an international outbreak of monkeypox. According to statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up to now, the world has recorded more than 1,000 cases of monkeypox in 29 countries, the highest of which is the UK. , Spain, Portugal, Canada and Germany. According to WHO, this virus may have been spreading silently for some time, such as for weeks, months or years before being detected in May.

In Africa, most human cases of smallpox have occurred from contact with infected animals rather than from person-to-person transmission. Infection with monkeypox can cause painful lesions all over the body and leave lasting scars.

The course of the disease lasts about three weeks. However, unlike what is commonly seen in cases of monkeypox in Africa, most of the cases identified in Europe and the US are mild. Usually, the first symptom of monkeypox is fever, but some recent cases in the US have not reported fever or other early signs before the lesions appeared.

One of the reasons monkeypox has been quietly circulating for a while may be that the symptoms in this outbreak are much more difficult to detect than in previous cases.

Dr Amesh A. Adalja, Senior Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said: “It is possible that the monkeypox virus entered through social and sexual activity and then spread to some countries around the world. In addition to the difficult to detect symptoms, some lesions are still being confused with sexually transmitted diseases, affecting the diagnostic results and possibly causing the disease to spread silently.

From January 1 to June 1 this year, 66 people have died from monkeypox in African countries. For the current outbreak on a global scale, experts warn, if the number of cases during this time is only around the 1,000 mark, this will be a sign that the virus can still be controlled. However, if the number of cases reaches 4,000 in the coming days, this suggests that the outbreak is unlikely to be under control.