Monkeypox will not reach a pandemic status like COVID-19 according to many health experts, although many cases appear in endemic countries. While US President Joe Biden has expressed alarm over the unexpected increase in instances of monkeypox, leading US health experts have stated that it would not result in a global pandemic similar to Covid-19.
While monkeypox cases are troubling, Dr. Faheem Younus, Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, stated there is no possibility of a Covid-like pandemic. He went on to say that, unlike SARS-CoV-2, the monkeypox virus is not new (the virus that causes Covid-19).
Monkeypox has been known to the world for decades, and it is a disease that belongs to the same virus family as smallpox. The monkeypox virus, according to Dr. Faheem, is usually not fatal and is less contagious than the coronavirus.
The fact that there is a vaccination for the disease is reassuring, unlike Covid-19, which was immune to previous vaccines and took the world almost a year to find a therapy for.
There have been no verified instances of monkeypox in India yet. However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Public Health Department (BMC) has established guidelines for the isolation and management of suspected monkeypox cases, keeping Indians’ safety in mind. Monkeypox is a rare viral infection that is usually mild and recovers in a few weeks, according to the National Health Service of the United Kingdom. However, the disease can be lethal, with one in every 100 people affected dying as a result of the current outbreak.
Monkeypox non-endemic countries are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, U.K., U.S.A.