Smallpox has appeared in at least eight countries on the continentHowever, several cases of the virus have already been identified in the United States, Canada and Australia. The World Health Organization held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the next steps in controlling smallpox after more than 100 confirmed and suspected cases outside Africa were reported by Friday, the International Business Times reports.
Smallpox has already appeared in Germany, but also in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. According to German experts, Europe has never faced a large-scale outbreak of smallpox as it does today. The virus, which usually has a mild course, usually causes illness that lasts for two to four weeks. The syndrome associated with fever and swollen lymph nodes first appears 5 to 21 days after infection. Infection so far rarely occurs outside of West and Central Africa, where 1 to 10 percent of patients die from abuse or complex disease.
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An expert at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute told IBS that the wave of infection is expected to disappear quickly, patients can be easily isolated, appropriate medicines are available to treat infection and effective vaccines to prevent it. True, none were specifically developed for smallpox, but the chickenpox vaccine also protects against smallpox by 85 percent, according to the World Health Organization. The British have already begun vaccinating endangered health workers.
smallpox It debuted in Europe on May 7, and an English tourist returning from Nigeria can bring it to the continent. Since then, more than 100 cases have been identified, according to data collection from Oxford University. Most of those infected do not travel to Africa and have not had direct contact with someone who appeared on the continent, so the World Health Organization assumes that the virus may already be spreading within local communities.
