WHO urges caution after human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday asked people infected with monkeypox not to expose animals to the virus, after a first case of human-to-dog transmission.

Last week, hehe medical journal The Lancet reported the first case of human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox. which was produced in France.

“This is the first known case of human-to-animal transmission, and we believe the first case of an infected dog,” said Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical director for monitoring the virus.

The experts were aware that this jump could occur, so public health agencies were already advising those who were infected with the virus to “isolate themselves from their pets.”

Now, Lewis says that “waste management is essential” to reduce the risk of contamination to rodents and other wildlife.

Since, when viruses jump from one species to another, there is a risk that they mutate.

“The most dangerous situation is when a virus jumps to a small mammal with a high population density.WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters.

However, he did not consider pets to be a danger.

“The virus will not mutate faster if it’s in a single dog than if it’s in a single human.Ryan said.

The term monkeypox was used after the detection of the virus in 1958. in monkeys from a laboratory in Denmark, but the virus was also found in other animals, especially rodents.

The disease was first detected in humans in 1970 and is less dangerous and contagious than its cousin smallpox, eradicated in 1980.

The virus can be transmitted from animal to man.but the recent explosion of cases is due to human-to-human transmission through close contacts.

More than 35,000 cases have been detected since the beginning of the year in 92 countries, and the virus caused 12 deaths, according to the WHO, which described this outbreak as a global health emergency.