Monkeypox: Pope Francis asks that no one should lack adequate medical care

Pope Francis called today that “no one lacks adequate medical care” in the face of the health crisis caused by monkeypox (mpox), whose resurgence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been considered by the World Organization of Health (WHO) as a “public health emergency of international concern”.

At the conclusion of the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican this Sunday, the Holy Father expressed his “solidarity to the thousands of people affected by monkeypox, which is now a global health emergency.”

“I pray for all the infected people, especially for the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo so tested,” he said.

After expressing his “closeness to the local Churches of the countries most affected by this disease,” Pope Francis asked government authorities, as well as private industries, to “share the technology and treatments available, so that no one “There is a lack of adequate medical care.”

What is monkeypox or monkeypox?

According Medline Plusservice of the United States National Library of Medicine, monkeypox is “a viral infection in which a person develops fever, fatigue, muscle aches, and a skin rash that can involve the entire body. “Most cases resolve within 2 to 4 weeks.”

It is, he specifies, a “rare” disease that has been found “mainly in countries in central and western Africa.” The first reported case in humans of this disease, indicates the specialized website, was reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.

“Cases that do not involve international travel or contact with imported animals have recently been reported, indicating the spread of this infection,” he adds.

The disease can be transmitted from animal to human, through bites or consumption of wild meat, among other factors, as well as from human to human, through contact with objects of an infected person, by “large respiratory droplets” and “ during intimate contact.”

Monkeypox: A “public health emergency” but not “the new COVID”

On August 14 of this year, the WHO reported that its director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “has determined that the resurgence of monkeypox (mpox) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a growing number of African countries constitutes a public health emergency of international concern” .

“The Director General launched the procedure for listing mpox vaccines for emergency use, which will accelerate access to these vaccines, especially by lower-income countries that have not yet issued their own national regulatory approval,” added the international organization.

However, as collected the CBS news network, Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, stated in a recent press conference that monkeypox “is not the new COVID,” and assured that “we know how to control mpox and, in the region European Union, the necessary steps to completely eliminate its transmission.”