{"id":8590,"date":"2022-08-01T08:47:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T08:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/?p=8590"},"modified":"2022-08-01T08:47:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T08:47:48","slug":"amid-monkeypox-surge-who-urges-reducing-number-of-sexual-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/?p=8590","title":{"rendered":"Amid Monkeypox Surge, WHO Urges Reducing Number Of Sexual Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.Tedros said Wednesday that more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported to WHO from 78 countries, with 70 percent of cases reported in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas.Five deaths have been reported in the outbreak since May, and around 10 percent of those infected end up in hospital to manage the pain, he said.\u2013 \u2018Anyone\u2019 can get monkeypox \u2013A full 98 percent of cases have occurred in men who have sex with men.A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week found that 98 percent of infected people were gay or bisexual men, and 95 percent of cases were transmitted through sexual activity.But experts say the transmission of the disease, which causes a blistering rash, appears to mainly happen during close, physical contact, and monkeypox has so far not been labelled a sexually transmitted infection (STI).Experts also warn against thinking that only one community can be affected by the disease, stressing that it spreads through regular skin-to-skin contact, and also through droplets or touching contaminated bedding or towels in a household setting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WHO has repeatedly warned against stigma around the disease, which could dissuade those infected from seeking treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus, and can fuel the outbreak,\u201d Tedros said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Andy Seale of WHO\u2019s sexually transmitted infections programme, stressed that the messaging around the need for gay and bisexual men to reduce their number of sexual partners was \u201ccoming from the communities themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said this was possibly only \u201ca short-term message as we hope that the outbreak of course will be short-lived\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stressed that other measures would also be needed to bring down the number of cases, including spreading information about the symptoms to look out for and the need to isolate quickly, and access to tests and medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO is also recommending targeted vaccination for those exposed to someone with monkeypox or for those at high risk of exposure, including health workers and those with multiple sexual partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this time, we do not recommend mass vaccination against monkeypox,\u201d Tedros said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Vaccines initially developed against smallpox \u2014 monkeypox\u2019s far more deadly cousin which was eradicated over four decades ago \u2014 have been found to protect against the virus, but the jabs are in short supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.Tedros said Wednesday that more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported to WHO from 78 countries, with 70 percent of cases reported in Europe and 25 percent in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Director-General-of-the-World-Health-Organization-WHO-Tedros-Adhanom-Ghebreyesus-768x384-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8593,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8590\/revisions\/8593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}