GENEVA – The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a total of 2,103 monkey pox laboratory confirmed cases between 1 January to 15 June 2022 in 42 countries in five WHO Regions of the Americas, Africa, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific.
This current Disease Outbreak News on the multi-country monkeypox outbreak is an update to the previously published Disease Outbreak News of 10 June, with updated data, some further details on surveillance and reporting, One Health, gatherings, Risk communication and community engagement and International travel and points of entry.
In this edition, the WHO is removing the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries, reporting on countries together where possible, to reflect the unified response that is needed.
As of 15 June, a total of 2,103 laboratory confirmed cases and one probable case, including one death, have been reported to WHO. The outbreak of monkeypox continues to primarily affect men who have sex with men who have reported recent sex with new or multiple partners.
While epidemiological investigations are ongoing, most reported cases in the recent outbreak have presented through sexual health or other health services in primary or secondary health care facilities, with a history of travel primarily to countries in Europe, and North America or other countries rather than to countries where the virus was not historically known to be present, and increasingly, recent travel locally or no travel at all.
Confirmation of one case of monkeypox, in a country, is considered an outbreak. The unexpected appearance of monkeypox in several regions in the initial absence of epidemiological links to areas that have historically reported monkeypox, suggests that there may have been undetected transmission for some time.
WHO assesses the risk at the global level as moderate considering this is the first time that many monkeypox cases and clusters are reported concurrently in many countries in widely disparate WHO geographical areas, balanced against the fact that mortality has remained low in the current outbreak.
The majority (84%) of confirmed cases are from the WHO European Region. Confirmed cases have also been reported from the African Region, the Region of the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Western Pacific Region.
Of cases reported (468 out 2,103 confirmed cases) from 14 countries for which demographic information and personal characteristics are available, 99% are reported in men aged 0 to 65 years (Interquartile range: 32 to 43 years; median age 37 years), of which most self-identify as men who have sex with other men.
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