This comes at a time when scientists are focusing their efforts to reveal all information related to the virus, which will facilitate the process of confronting it, after recording cases in several separate countries.
Regarding the situation of the virus in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, the medical officer of the Infection Risk Prevention and Preparedness Unit for Global Health, Ivan Boliva, said in exclusive statements to “Sky News Arabia”, that the organization has not yet been officially informed of the emergence of cases in the countries of the region.
The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region consists of 22 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan and Somalia.
Boliva explained that monkeypox is a rare disease that occurs mainly in remote areas of central and western Africa near tropical rainforests, but there is no treatment or vaccine available to combat the disease, although the previous vaccination against smallpox proved highly effective in preventing it.
According to the WHO, monkeypox in humans was first detected in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a 9-year-old boy who lived in an area where smallpox was eradicated in 1968.
In recent weeks, cases have been reported in Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, as well as in the United States, Canada and Australia, raising fears that the virus may spread.
Symptoms of the rare disease include fever, muscle aches, swollen lymph glands, chills, fatigue, and a chickenpox-like rash on the hands and face.
People with monkeypox usually recover after two to four weeks, according to the World Health Organization.
