Author: Everleigh Connely
Thousands of monkeypox virus or simian orthopoxvirus cases have been recorded in 32 European countries. Based on the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) report, only two patients out of 15,624 have died from monkeypox.
Since Belgium reports the first case of monkeypox patient death, the death rate in Europe has increased to three deaths.
Undeniably, the first monkeypox patient death recorded in Belgium scared many, especially since Belgium is not the most affected European country.
The reported number of cases for Belgium is 482. The fact that there’s already a reported death is surely a worry, making the news the headlines.
The unprecedented monkeypox virus outbreak
Even if monkeypox patient death is still a rare occurrence during outbreak, news about deaths is already enough to cause panic. The symptoms of the virus cause the most worry and discomfort to many people.
Data shows that most of the patients suffer from great skin rashes. Unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s more visible fear for people seeing what monkeypox patients have to suffer.
That is not all, the symptoms of the monkeypox virus don’t end with just skin rashes. The majority of the patients also suffered from muscle aches, fever, fatigue, chills, and headaches.
Despite those symptoms, only a few percentage of monkeypox patients in Europe have been hospitalized or admitted to the intensive care unit. A small percentage of the patients were healthcare professionals but were not occupationally exposed to the virus.
Based on the current data, it was reported that a significant number of monkeypox cases have sexual contact as the suspected source of virus transmission.
However, health experts highlighted that exposure and contact are enough to get the virus.
Furthermore, contact with objects that people with the virus have used can become a transmitter of the disease. Prolonged face-to-face contact is also not left out as a way of getting infected.
Besides the fear of the monkeypox symptoms, the possible scars from the skin rashes that can occur primarily on the face, genitals, and anus are the primary cause of indescribable uneasiness to the people who always hear frightening news about it.
Takeaway
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), European countries and the United States are the primary hotspots of the global outbreak of monkeypox. While there is an alarming number of cases, the deaths are still rare. The monkeypox virus is a threat, especially to people with weaker immune systems.
As monkeypox is a serious disease, patients need to have access better treatment to be effectively healed from it.
Interestingly, the treatment is not the biggest worry with the monkeypox virus, but rather the effort to stop the outbreak from spreading. Even though it might not be an easy feat, it is achievable with the right measure to avoid the fast spread of the disease.
