NEW DELHI: Amid 4 deaths due to monkeypox outside Africa, including India, the WHO ( World Health Organization) has said that the infectious disease is expected to lead to more deaths.

"With the ongoing spread of monkeypox, we will expect to witnsess more deaths," Catherine Smallwood, Senior Emergency Officer at WHO Europe, said in a statement.  Smallwood stressed that the target needs to be "interrupting transmission quickly and stopping this outbreak".

However, Smallwood emphazised that in most cases the disease heals itself without the need for treatment.
According to the WHO's latest statement on July 28, the recent monkeypox outbreak, which was originally recorded in May, has since expanded to 78 countries and has affected more than 18,000 people. Five deaths attributed to monkeypox were known to have occurred in Africa at the time.

Two deaths occurred in Spain last week, while one each occurred in Brazil and India. According to reports, a young man from Kerala, age 22, passed away on Saturday from monkeypox.  He reportedly arrived in the state from the UAE on July 21 and was subsequently hospitalised on July 27 after contracting encephalitis and a fever. His lymph nodes were also reportedly swollen.

Four confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported from India thus far, three of them in Kerala and one in Delhi.

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