Vigilance urged amid spread of monke8k8 casino slot log inypox

People are being urged to be on the lookout for the monkeypox virus as it breaks into Asia and Latin America. However, despite the detection of cases in the United Arab Emirates and in Israel, the situation does not pose a threat to the region's recovery from the pandemic, especially in the Middle East, experts have said.

Ben Hanson, consultant physician and chief executive of the consultancy Rivers International Management Services in Dubai, said that though the media and many governments "are now hypervigilant" in terms of new zoonotic infections, infections passed from animals to humans, this has been "occurring sporadically throughout history".

There is "no need to increase restrictions based on current evidence (but) just maintain close surveillance", Hanson said. "I don't think monkeypox will impact the post-COVID recovery in the UAE (which) has a robust healthcare system, especially public health and disease surveillance."

The UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention announced the Emirate's first case of monkeypox on Tuesday in a woman who arrived from West Africa. Last month the UAE emerged as the travel industry's most recovered country, according to a report by the global technology firm Travelport.

Israel has detected two cases of monkeypox in men who both had a history of travel. Before the most recent detections, the country had recorded an imported case of monkeypox in a man who returned from Nigeria in 2018.

More than 200 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox virus have been detected in more than 20 countries, mainly Europe and North America.

Argentina's Ministry of Health confirmed the first two cases of monkeypox in Latin America on Friday. Mexican health authorities on Saturday confirmed the country's first imported case, which was detected in the capital city.

The name monkeypox originates from the discovery of the virus in monkeys in a Danish laboratory in 1958. In 1970 the first human case was identified in a child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO said available evidence suggests that those who are most at risk are those who have had close physical contact with someone who is symptomatic.

Better prepared

With the virus now spreading to more countries, Ami Neuberger, an infectious disease expert and director of the traveler medicine service at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, said the virus has either mutated or people may have contracted it during gatherings.

Neuberger, who is also the chief of Rambam Health Care Campus' COVID-19 department, is confident that Israel is better prepared to tackle a possible outbreak, thanks to its experience of handling COVID-19, which produced ample isolation units and equipment.

Hanson said the global spread "is due to much more frequent air travel with West Africa than previously, about 20 to 30 years ago".

" (With) more human population, more international travel and smaller habitat for wildlife, people will be sharing more space with wildlife and catching their viruses," Hanson said, noting that there are now "few travel restrictions outside China and some Asian countries".

Xinhua contributed to this story.