Geneva: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday said that the monkeypox virus has spread to more than 20 countries, with about 200 confirmed cases.
Over 100 suspected cases in nations where it is typically not found, WHO added.
Monkeypox is a virus that originates in wild animals like rodents and primates and occasionally jumps to people. It belongs to the same virus family as smallpox.
Most human cases have been in central and west Africa and outbreaks have been relatively limited.
The illness was first identified by scientists in 1958 when there were two outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease in research monkeys — thus the name monkeypox. The first known human infection was in 1970, in a young boy in a remote part of Congo.
The World Health Organization estimates there are thousands of monkeypox infections in about a dozen African countries every year. Most are in Congo, which reports about 6,000 cases annually, and Nigeria, with about 3,000 cases a year.
