Islamabad - The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international emergency in the context of the spread of monkeypox in July. This skin disease was first discovered in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since the current epidemic began in January 2023, more than 27,000 cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while more than 1100 deaths have also occurred.
Most of those who die from this disease include children.
However, now this virus is not limited to its center, the Democratic Republic of Congo, but has reached many other African countries, and a few days ago, it was also detected in Sweden and Pakistan for the first time, while a case of it was also reported in Thailand on Thursday. came
How dangerous is the monkeypox virus exposed in Pakistan?
Overall, this uncertain situation increased in 2022, when the clade 2 variant of M. pox spread in many countries of the world, especially in Western countries.
However, the death rate in these newly infected countries was very low, around 0.2%, unlike African countries.
The main reason for this was the treatment facilities. For example, a patient living in the US or Europe is more likely to receive prompt and appropriate medical treatment than a patient in most African countries.
The risk of M. pox being low or high depends on the quality and system of primary care," says virologist Anton Gassin, an expert on the disease.
What is monkeypox and how dangerous is it?
In other words, countries with a good health system will have a lower death rate from this disease. Similarly, there are other factors, that influence the mortality rate, for example, some patients are physically weaker than others.
More than 27,000 cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while most of the dead, more than 500, are children.
If only child deaths are looked at, most of the deaths were children who were malnourished.
Mortality from this disease also depends on how the disease is spread. Between 2022 and 2023, most of the disease was spread by homosexuals and bisexuals, and deaths remained high among members of the same community.
The type of virus, i.e. to which clade or family it belongs, adds to the complexity of the disease.
Clade 1 is of more global concern than clade 2 because the virus appears to be transmitted from person to person through routine close contact. Medical experts have warned that the new type of virus has the potential to spread rapidly and that more cases may be reported in other regions of the world, including Europe.
