Irish Examiner View: Care, not panic needed over monkeypox outbreak

Ireland’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre currently reports 69 cases as WHO classifies it a public health emergency of international concern

The spread of monkeypox could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, or it could yet be contained. 

It is important to keep perspective over the monkeypox outbreak, despite its classification as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO), the same warning attached to Covid-19.

A PHEIC can be declared when a disease spreads internationally which may require a co-ordinated response between governments. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director general, said that while risk was moderate globally, it was “high” in Europe, which accounts for 11,865 of 16,016 cases worldwide. Ireland’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre currently reports 69 cases. Symptoms include an itchy rash, a fever, a headache, and muscular pain or backaches, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion.

Monkeypox is usually spread through intimate contact, predominantly among men who have sex with men - though cases among children have been reported in the US. It can be treated with antiviral drugs. It requires care, not panic.