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Monkeypox Symptoms Alert Risk South-East Asia WHO Regional Director Poonam Khetrapal Singh Physical Contact Global Health Emergency

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New Delhi: The World Health Organisation (WHO) is regularly reviewing available data with its laboratory and other expert groups after Monkeypox cases are being reported from multiple countries, said Dr. PK Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region on Monday. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the current monkeypox epidemic a global health emergency on July 23. “The transmission of monkeypox appears to be occurring primarily through close physical contact, including sexual contact. Transmission can also occur from contaminated materials such as linens, bedding, electronics, clothing, that have infectious skin particles,” she said.

Earlier, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said that “monkeypox has been spreading rapidly and to many countries that have not seen it before, which is a matter of great concern”. She added that with cases concentrated among men who have sex with men, it is possible to curtail further spread of the disease with focused efforts among at-risk populations.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a media briefing last week that for the moment, monkeypox is an “outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men”.

For the second time in two years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has had to declare a global emergency. This time the reason for this is monkeypox, which has spread to more than 70 countries in a few weeks and has infected thousands of people.

Also Read: EXPLAINED: Is Monkeypox A Sexually Transmitted Disease? Know What Experts Say

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday over-ruled a panel of advisors that could not reach a consensus, and declared Monkeypox a global health emergency. The term is currently only used by the WHO for two other diseases, Covid-19 and polio.

WHO has declared an infection or disease a global health emergency for the seventh time since 2009. This is the strongest call to action this agency can take. Earlier in 2020, the WHO declared Covid-19 a global health emergency.

There are more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox outside Africa, nearly five times the number at the time of the advisory meeting in June. While the countries of Europe have been the most affected, cases have also been reported in America, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, Israel, Brazil, Mexico and India. The infection has spread to more than 70 countries in total.

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July 25, 2022
Govt decides not to raise alert for monkeypox

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A nurse wearing protective gear stands at the entrance of an isolation ward for monkeypox patients at a government hospital in Hyderabad, India, on Monday. Thailand has decided not to raise the alert level for the disease. (AFP photo)

The government decided on Monday not to declare monkeypox another serious communicable disease as health authorities remain confident they can contain the virus.

Chakrarat Pittayawonganon, director of the epidemiology division at the Department of Disease Control, said increasing surveillance measures on the disease nationwide would be sufficient.

The nature of monkeypox does not yet fit the definition of the Communicable Disease Act, the official added.

“Serious communicable diseases must have severe symptoms and be spread easily and quickly,” Dr Chakrarat said after the meeting of the academic committee to seek opinions on its status.

Dr Chakrarat said the experts in the meeting were confident in the health system and personnel, and believed could manage monkeypox.

Thailand announced the first monkeypox patient on Thursday. The case was a Nigerian, 27, in Phuket. The patient, 27, is under treatment at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh after he illegally crossed the border from Thailand to Cambodia on Friday and was arrested in the Cambodian capital the next day.

O Vandin, the Secretary of State and spokeswoman for the Cambodian Health Ministry, said the patient was in good health and no infections were detected in five people who had been close to him during his escape, the Khmer Times reported on Monday.

The World Health Organization on Saturday declared monkeypox as “A Public Health Emergency of International Concern” and urged member countries to find effective coping methods that do not stigmatise target groups.

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July 25, 2022
Committee to meet Monday on monkeypox alert level: Anutin

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A person arrives to receive a monkeypox vaccination at the Northwell Health Immediate Care Center at Fire Island-Cherry Grove in New York on July 15, 2022. (Reuters photo)

A committee will on Monday decide whether to impose the highest level of monkeypox alert after the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday declared the outbreak a global health emergency, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Sunday.

He said the committee, which comprises qualified medical experts, would discuss measures to be taken to cope with the monkeypox outbreak said by the WHO to have affected nearly 16,000 people in 72 countries. The experts will also consider whether and how to impose an alert of that level under the Thai public health system.

So far Thailand has had one confirmed smallpox case – a 27-year-old Nigerian man arrested in Cambodia after escaping from Phuket, where he was found to have contracted the disease.

Mr Anutin said he had ordered international communicable disease control checkpoints along the border to coordinate with immigration police to watch travellers from countries declared high-risk by the WHO.

They are subject to be screened at airports for basic symptoms – such as blisters and rashes on the skin – by using similar methods as those used against Covid-19.

As for a smallpox vaccine long kept in storage, the Medical Science Department has examined the supply and found it could be applied for monkeypox, if necessary, Mr Anutin said.

The Department of Medical Services, he said, has confirmed that people infected with monkeypox can be treated with medicines that are currently available, and hospitals are ready to provide treatment.

Mr Anutin said people should not be overly nervous because monkeypox does not spread as quickly as Covid-19. Universal prevention measures – such as mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing – can minimise the risk of contracting monkeypox, he added.

Asked about measures to prevent monkeypox patients escaping from treatment facilities, Mr Anutin said since the WHO has imposed the highest alert level against monkeypox he has instructed hospitals to keep people suspected or confirmed to have been infected in quarantine for treatment and further investigation.

Asked whether it is now necessary to impose travel restrictions to prevent people from some countries entering Thailand, Mr Anutin said the situation is not yet at that level.

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July 24, 2022
US embassy in Kiev issues security alert — RT World News

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The diplomatic mission has advised US citizens, who are still in the country, to avoid “large gatherings and organized events”

Citing a “highly volatile” security situation, the US embassy in Kiev has urged Americans not to visit Ukraine, and those already there to leave immediately.

In a security alert published on Thursday on the embassy’s website, US citizens who are still in Ukraine have been strongly advised against attending large public gatherings.

It emphasized that the “security situation throughout Ukraine continues to be violent and unpredictable,” claiming that “large gatherings and organized events” may “serve as Russian military targets” anywhere in the country.

The alert warned that US citizens in Ukraine should not “rely on US government assistance” but instead act according to their own “contingency plan,” which has to be developed in advance.

Commenting on the US embassy’s alert on Telegram on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote that the diplomats omitted to mention “that Washington is supplying the Kiev regime with US weapons which is provoking the continuation of the conflict and people’s deaths.”

The US warning was published hours after a deadly explosion hit the city of Vinnitsa in central Ukraine on Thursday. According to Kiev, the attack claimed the lives of 22 civilians, including three children, and injured scores more.

The Russian military, in a statement issued on Friday, confirmed launching a missile attack at a target in Vinnitsa, but denied it was a deliberate strike against civilians. The Defense Ministry said it had attacked Ukrainian senior military commanders while they were negotiating with foreign arms suppliers at the local House of Officers building.

All participants are said to have been killed as a result of the strike. According to the ministry, the discussions centered on the “transfer of more warplanes and weapons systems, as well as the repair of the Ukrainian military air fleet.”

Both Kiev and Moscow have repeatedly accused each other of hitting civilian targets, while insisting that their respective forces are only striking military objects, hardware and personnel.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

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July 15, 2022