The spread of monkey flu is “something everyone should worry about,” US President Joe Biden said Sunday.
During a trip to Asia, Biden said U.S. health officials were exploring possible treatments and vaccines.
“We are working hard to figure out what to do,” Biden told reporters at an airport in South Korea shortly before he left for Japan.
- Monkey: Here’s what we know about the spread
- Understand how the disease is spread
Monkey: The doctor talks about the disease
Cases of monkey flu cases reported in Europe, North America and Australia in recent days have raised alarm among scientists and health agencies. Outside Africa, at least 100 cases have already been reported in 13 countries (United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Israel, the United States, Canada and Australia).
Austria filed its first suspect case on Sunday (22).
In Spain, one of the European countries with the highest number of cases, a sauna in Madrid was closed by health officials on Friday (20), making it suspected that monkey flu sufferers are among its regulars (read more).
On the African continent, there are already more than 1,200 suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are no lawsuits in Brazil.
Experts still do not know exactly how the disease is spread. Monkeys are usually transmitted from animals to humans – because it is a zoonosis – and, less often, from one person to another. The eruptions have occurred in the past – the most recent of which was in 2021 in the United States.
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