In the month of May 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) gave notice of the global epidemiological situation, and alerted the different nations, upon notification of cases of monkeypox or monkeypox in 47 countries of the world.
According to the latest weekly report of the Pan American Health Organization (OPM) and the WHO on the monkeypox outbreak, currently in the world 3,508 cases are reported in 50 countries of the world and a single death in Nigeria, this with a cut-off date of June 23.
(Read: Recommendations to avoid getting monkeypox).
According to the organizations, 85% of cases are reported in the European region, 12% of these are located in the Americas region, 2% are in Africa, 1% in the Eastern Mediterranean and 1% in the Western Pacific.
For the specific case of Colombia, with data from the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health (INS), three positive cases of monkeypox were confirmed, two located in Bogotá and one in Medellín. For her part, Claudia Cuéllar, director of Epidemiology and Demography of the Ministry of Health, called for “these reports not to generate alarm or panic in the population.”
Likewise, the director confirmed that: “the manifestations of monkeypox usually include fever, headaches, muscle pain, back pain, low energy, swollen lymph nodes and a skin rash or maculopapular lesions.”
For the epidemiologist at the Universidad del Rosario, Carlos Trillos, “although it has not been declared a public health emergency of international importance, we must be vigilant, with coordinated and intense actions by the health authorities.”
According to the OMP, the main nations of the Americas affected are; Canada (224), United States (173), Brazil (11), Mexico (11), Argentina (4), Chile (3) and Colombia (3) and Venezuela (1).
DIANA K. RODRIGUEZ
