POX ‘CAN BE CONTAINED’

GENEVA: The monkeypox outbreaks in non-endemic countries can be contained and human-to-human transmission of the virus stopped, the World Health Organisation has declared.

Fewer than 200 confirmed and suspected cases have been recorded so far, the WHO’s emerging disease lead Maria Van Kerkhove said. “This is a containable situation, particularly in the countries where we are seeing these outbreaks that are happening across Europe, in North America as well.

“We can use public health tools of early identification, supported isolation of cases.

“We can stop human-tohuman transmission.”

Rosamund Lewis, who heads the smallpox secretariat at the WHO, said monkeypox had been known for at least 40 years and a few cases had appeared in Europe over the past five years.