“The situation is changing very quickly,” explains Santé Publique France.
- Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon said last week that authorities did not expect an “outbreak” of the disease.
- She also indicated that the country had sufficient stocks of vaccines for contact cases.
As of 1 June 2022 at 10 a.m., 33 confirmed cases of monkey pox (or monkeypox) have been reported in France: 24 in Ile-de-France, 2 in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 1 in Haut-de-France, 1 in Centre-Val de Loire, 4 in Occitania and 1 case in Normandy.
Surveillance
“To date, in Europe, these cases have occurred mainly, but not exclusively, in men who have sex with men (MSM), not directly linked to people returning from endemic areas”precise Public Health France. “In the usual absence of Monkeypox in Europe and of a link reported by the cases identified with a risk area, the current European context constitutes an alert and suggests contamination in Europe”, adds the agency.
This is why, in France, the long-term monitoring of Monkeypox by the mandatory reporting system is reinforced and information or alert messages are sent to health professionals. Exchanges are also continuing with other European countries, the WHO and the ECDC. Dn an opinion issued on Tuesday, the High Authority for Health recommended the vaccination of adults, including health professionals, who had risky contact with a patient suffering from monkeypox.
Symptoms
Monkeypox is a viral infection usually rare in Europe that manifests with fever, rashes and swollen lymph nodes. The disease, generally mild, can nevertheless be fatal if left untreated, especially in young people.
Since its discovery in 1970, human cases of monkeypox have been recorded in several African countries: Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Sudan. Contamination was then via rodents or monkeys.