"Don't panic over 'monkey pox'", chief of Georgian Center for Disease Control says

Georgia is prepared to handle monkeypox

Amiran Gamkrelidze, head of Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control, says “monkey pox” does not spread as fast as other respiratory viruses, that’s why there is no reason to panic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared monkeypox a global public health emergency.

Amiran Gamkrelidze explains that “this is an exceptional public health situation of international importance”, which was adopted by WHO after much discussion. According to him, this is not a pandemic, but an epidemic concentrated in certain groups. However, Gamkrelidze notes that countries should be ready to diagnose and monitor it.

Director of the Center for Disease Control says Georgia is ready to detect and treat cases of infection:

“We must be ready for diagnosis and detection. We already did this in May, when we strengthened monitoring. During this period, 10 probable cases were registered in the country, 9 of them were not confirmed. We reinforced our readiness, several documents have been developed that define monitoring, suspicion period, etc.”

According to Gamkrelidze, there has not been a single case of the virus infection in Georgia for 21 days, which means the virus has not spread, and the only infected person has already recovered.

The only case of infection with the monkeypox virus in Georgia was confirmed on June 15.

What is “monkey pox”

Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans mainly from rodents and primates. Among people, the virus spreads by airborne transmission, by direct contact with infected bodily fluids, or by touching infected objects.

“Monkeypox” has a much milder course, with the incubation period lasting from 5 to 21 days (most often 7-14 days).

According to the National Center for Disease Control, WHO’s working version for the determination of a “monkey pox” case is as follows:

A possible case includes an acute illness with fever (>38.3⁰C) accompanied by severe headache, lymphadenopathy, back pain, myalgia, severe weakness, and a progressive rash that develops after 1-3 days, often starting on the face and spreading to other parts of the body, including the foot soles and the hand palms.

A probable case has not been confirmed in a laboratory but has an epidemiological link to a confirmed or probable case.

A confirmed case is a clinically compatible case confirmed by laboratory testing.

Notably, during the period of intensive vaccination in the 20th century, outbreaks of “monkey pox” were rare, isolated, and short-lived.

Georgia is prepared to handle monkeypox