The World Health Organization said on Monday it believed the monkeypox outbreak outside of Africa required no mass vaccinations as measures like good hygiene and safe sexual behavior will help control its spread, a senior official said.
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Richard Pebody, who leads the high-threat pathogen team at WHO Europe, said that immediate supplies of vaccines and antivirals are relatively limited.
Public health authorities in Europe and North America are investigating more than 100 suspected and confirmed cases of the viral infection in the worst outbreak of the virus outside of Africa, where it is endemic.
The primary measures to control the outbreak are contact tracing and isolation, Pebody said, noting that it is not a virus that spreads very easily, nor has it so far caused serious disease. The vaccines used to combat monkeypox can have some significant side-effects, he added.
