IN THE midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have another disease, monkeypox, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). That was towards the end of July.
The panic was triggered in early May, when the US and countries in Europe, where the disease is not endemic, started reporting outbreaks of monkeypox along with several endemic countries in West and Central Africa.
This is why the disease became a matter of global concern. Otherwise, would cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or say, in Nigeria, have occasioned such alarm? But with monkeypox cases and clusters erupting in both non-endemic and endemic countries, the disease is belatedly coming into WHO's focus, after its advisory committee decide twice earlier against labelling monkeypox a PHEIC.
Monkeypox is a viral infection that has been endemic in about a dozen countries in Africa for several years now. There has been an epidemic in Nigeria since 2017, with more than 200 confirmed and over 500 suspected cases, according to media reports. In 2018, Nigerian scientists had warned that the virus had changed its behaviour and was spreading not from animals but from humans to humans. No one took serious note of this and, for lack of funds for research, there was no follow-up on the findings of the scientists. The crux of the problem, in the view of some public health experts, has been the lack of engagement by WHO in ensuring vaccinations in the endemic regions of Africa, even though scientists and public health officials have been warning for years now that the virus could spread more widely and rapidly. Reports say that over 31 million doses of the smallpox vaccine, which also provides protection against monkeypox, had earlier been pledged to Africa.
This story is from the September 01, 2022 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 01, 2022 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
INVISIBLE THREAT
Significant presence of microplastics in Puducherry’s agricultural soil raises concerns for soil and crop health
Feeding off each other
VEGETARIAN MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH ASIA AND THE WEST GREW WITH MUTUAL SUPPORT AND VALIDATION
India's unhealthy patent amendments
Despite strong pleas, the Modi regime has changed the rules to impose a cost on those who challenge faulty patents
URBAN DISCOMFORT
Poorly planned, heat-trapping infrastructure, along with dwindling natural spaces, turn up the temperatures in major Indian cities
BLAZING SUN IS ON
Rising temperatures are testing the limits of human tolerance to heat. With their predominantly built-up landscape, urban areas offer no respite. A study by the Centre for Science and Environment on the morphology and heat patterns of nine Indian cities over the past decade shows how these urban centres are turning into heat islands with a potentially serious impact on human health. An analysis by Rajneesh Sareen, Mitashi Singh and Nimish Gupta, with Shagun in Haryana and Kiran Pandey
"H5N1 may be more severe than COVID-19"
In early April, the US confirmed the first case of avian influenza in livestock, along with cow-to-human transmission of the virus disease.
A PSYCHEDELIC HIGH
Driven by surge in global trials and low success rate of current medications in treating mental health problems, researchers call for home-grown clinical trials of psychedelic drugs
Locked out
Two years after becoming the only state to be excluded from the Centre's ruralemployment guarantee scheme, villages in West Bengal grapple with distress migration and debt traps
'Protection from climate change part of right to life'
The Supreme Court of India, on April 5, recognised that citizens have a right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change, saying it is intertwined with the fundamental rights to life and equality. Here are the key arguments articulated by the three-judge bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra in their judgement
Weaving dreams
Tribal communities in West Bengal slowly embrace traditional weaving to ensure sustainable livelihood