WHO warns of 'real' risk that monkeypox will become established outside Africa
As monkeypox continues to spread in countries where it's not already endemic, health leaders are warning that the window to contain the outbreak is narrowing.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned Wednesday that the window to contain the global monkeypox outbreak may be narrowing.
"The risk of monkeypox becoming established in non-endemic countries is real," he said at a briefing in Geneva.
Since the start of May, the WHO has confirmed more than 1,000 monkeypox cases across 29 countries outside West and Central Africa, where the virus is endemic.
If outbreaks aren't contained and the virus does gain a foothold in new regions, it could simmer indefinitely at low levels. It's also possible cases would rise to epidemic proportions in some places, meaning large numbers of people would get sick in a short time frame.
"As you keep moving forward into the future and more and more individuals become infected, you do start to worry," said Amira Albert Roess, a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University. "Is this going to become something that is just going to keep on moving from person to person and then we will not be able to control it?"
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