The world is not alien to the concept of a lethal disease and how it spreads throughout the globe to morph into a pandemic, wreaking havoc in every country. A most recent entry to this list was Corona Virus forced us into our homes, quarantined in our solitude, cut off from the world. It seems a new pandemic is on the horizon, and this time in the incarnation of monkeypox. What is monkeypox anyway? Much like Covid, the early symptoms of this disease manifest in headache, fever and sore throat in patients but soon more severe symptoms like swollen lymph nodes and skin lesions start to show.
The viral disease has been recorded to either originate or begin with a few hundred cases in May 2022. It has been predominantly active throughout Europe but is also causing widespread worry in parts of America and Africa. As of recent, a total of 12,590 cases and 12 deaths have been confirmed, a staggering sum which only grows if not curbed through the right measures and precautions. Even in India, it has begun as the first case occurred in a 35-year-old man in Kerala. The World Health Organisation has dubbed it an “evolving health threat”.
Scientists have unveiled that monkeypox occurs mostly in men who copulate with other men, which may accentuate the stigma associated with the LGBT community. This has led numerous public health organisations and supporters of the community to educate people on the apparent cause.
Unlike during the rise of COVID, there are vaccines and treatments to treat monkeypox but the constant spurt has still raised concern around the globe. If the most recent pandemic has taught us anything, it is, as the saying goes, ” better be safe than sorry.” So this rise in concern is but just.
South Africa has confirmed its first monkeypox case. The first known case was found in a Nigerian patient on 6th May and since then it has thrived as an Endemic in Nigeria and has strayed into other African countries in the vicinity as well. The African researchers have pointed out that they have been warning the world about the potential outbreak of monkeypox and that no one paid them heed before the outbreak. They have been trying to the best of their ability to tame the outbreak and store peace back to the continent as soon as possible.
The case count from the current outbreak outside of Africa has topped 3,000 in more than 40 countries across the continent. South Africa has confirmed its first monkey pox case. Click the link to know more: https://www.ghanatalksradio.com/south-africa-confirms-first-monkeypox-case-not-linked-to-travel
The country’s Health Minister Confirmed that in June the first monkeypox case had been recorded by laboratory services. It was also brought to the notice that travel had no hand in this, for the patient was a 30-year-old male from Johannesburg who had no travel history. This made it crystal clear that it cannot always be attributed to one’s travel history. Scientists there are still trying to find the root cause of the patient’s disease without dishonouring any community.
Precautions:
You can follow these precautions to keep monkeypox at bay
- Avoid getting into close contact with people with apparent symptoms of monkeypox
- Avoid intimate contact with someone suspected to have monkeypox.
- If you’re someone manifesting symptoms of the viral, do not feel neglected or alienated when others try to maintain distance from you.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water and keep an alcohol-based hand sanitiser at all times.
- If you are someone from Central and West Africa, avoid being with rodents and primates, organisms known to spread the monkeypox virus.
