Around 200 monkeypox cases found in recent weeks outside countries where the virus usually circulates could be peak of iceberg, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
“We don’t know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg,” Sylvie Briand, WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief said in a briefing to countries on the “unusual” spread of the virus.
RELATED STORY: EU health agency records more than 200 cases of Monkeypox
Nearly 200 cases have been reported to the UN health agency in countries far from the states where the virus is endemic while the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) put the number of such cases at 219.
The cases were found in more than 20 other countries around the world, including the United States, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and nearly a dozen EU countries.
The Spanish health ministry said Friday that 98 cases had been confirmed there while Britain saw 90 verified infections and Portugal had 74 confirmed cases.
