Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that Turkey has so far reported five monkeypox cases, while four of them have recovered and one patient remains in isolation. Koca’s statement came after a Cabinet meeting late Monday.
On June 30, the country reported its first monkeypox case, a 37-year-old patient.
Koca said health care crews used contact tracing for all patients and isolated their contacts. He said four patients have fully recovered and been discharged from hospitals. He noted that they are in good health now and ruled out a pandemic risk for Turkey.
Till date, there have been more than 22,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, around 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first deaths outside Africa. Spain reported second monkeypox death on Saturday.
While monkeypox is not easily transmissible as COVID-19, experts warn if the disease spreads among the public, the need for vaccines will intensify, especially if the virus becomes entrenched in new regions. It is spreading exclusively among gay and bisexual men in Europe and North America.
Although monkeypox has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades, it mostly comes from infected wild animals and has not typically spread far beyond the continent.
Experts suspect the monkeypox outbreaks in North America and Europe may have originated in Africa long before the disease started spreading via sex at two raves in Spain and Belgium. Currently, more than 70% of the world's monkeypox cases are in Europe, and 98% of cases are males, men who have sex with men.
World Health Organization (WHO) is developing a vaccine-sharing mechanism for the affected countries but has shared few details about its working.
WHO's European office said Saturday that more monkeypox-related deaths can be expected, following reports of the first fatalities outside Africa, while stressing that severe complications were still rare. "With the continued spread of monkeypox in Europe, we will expect to see more deaths," Catherine Smallwood, Senior Emergency Officer at WHO Europe, said in a statement. However, Smallwood emphasized that the goal needs to be "interrupting transmission quickly in Europe and stopping this outbreak."
However, Smallwood stressed that the disease heals itself in most cases without the need for treatment.
"The notification of deaths due to monkeypox does not change our assessment of the outbreak in Europe. We know that although self-limiting in most cases, monkeypox can cause severe complications," Smallwood noted.
Last month, the WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.
As cases surge globally, the WHO called on the group currently most affected by the virus, men who have sex with men, to limit their sexual partners. Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph glands and a chickenpox-like rash. The disease usually heals by itself after two to three weeks, sometimes taking a month. A smallpox vaccine from Danish drug maker Bavarian Nordic, marketed under the name Jynneos in the United States and Imvanex in Europe, has also been found to protect against monkeypox.