The medical director of the Romanian Institute of Infectious Diseases „Prof. Dr. Matei Balş,” Dr. Adrian Marinescu, explains that in previous years, in Europe, including in Romania, there have been cases of monkeypox.
The warnings received from the World Health Organization regarding this disease should make people cautious, without thinking about a new pandemic.
"I would say that it is not a great danger, we should not think that another pandemic will come or that it will be a difficult situation. However, cautious thinking must exist.
Of course, we can ask why, with monkeypox, a disease that is still old, which we have been discussing since around 1970 - the first case was also in Congo - why are we talking more about it now?
Because, after all, the number of cases in the African continent is significantly higher. The question arises: if it is only prolonged contact, direct contact, why are there more cases? And in fact, this is where the World Health Organization's warning stems from. So cautious thinking is necessary," said Adrian Marinescu on Sunday on Antena3.
He explained that at the onset, the disease resembles, in terms of symptoms, a cold or the flu, but later an eruption appears, in the form of vesicles, usually especially in the genital area.
The doctor explained that the transmission of this disease "is not easy."
"Transmission through coughing and sneezing is extremely difficult, only prolonged contact can lead to transmission, but direct contact with a sick person can clearly lead to the disease. Most people indeed have mild forms and nothing happens, but unfortunately, there are also complications," Marinescu pointed out.
According to Adrian Marinescu, there have been cases of the disease in previous years, including in Romania.
"We have had cases of monkeypox (in Europe - editor's note) in previous years, and here we are indeed discussing a variant that we can call new, 1B, which does not mean it is different from what it was before.
We have had isolated cases even in Romania in the past years, but they have been extremely rare. The issue is not that it is a case in Sweden, if we will have more cases in Europe, as is happening with the dynamics in Africa. I believe that this will not happen, and the measures we can take now, including vaccination, should help us effectively," said Adrian Marinescu.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) raised the level of risk for monkeypox from "low" to "moderate" on Friday, a day after global health officials confirmed the first infection with a new strain of the virus outside Africa, in Sweden.