Now the monkey pox is closer to Mozambique. South Africa, Mozambique's neighboring country, reported on Thursday (23) having registered a first case of monkey pox. The disease already "reigns" in about 40 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla, the patient is a 30-year-old man from Johannesburg with no travel history. This means that the contamination did not occur outside the country, writes Radio France International.

Health authorities are also trying to find the people with whom the sick person had contact. No information has been released about the health status of the infected person or the symptoms he has developed, but it is known that the symptoms of the disease are usually fever, swollen lymph nodes, and skin rashes. The virus is eliminated from the body between two and three weeks after infection.

After an initial wave in 10 African countries, 84% of new cases have been recorded this year in Europe and 12% in the Americas. Almost 2,100 infections have been detected since the beginning of 2022 worldwide.

Last week, the WHO declared that the epicenter of monkeypox is Europe, but other countries have been counting contaminations since May. This Thursday, the organization must decide whether the epidemic will be declared an international public health emergency and make recommendations for vaccination. The eventual decisions will be announced on Friday (24).

The final approval will be given by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. If a state of health emergency is declared, the committee will have to make recommendations to "prevent and reduce the spread of the disease," the organization indicated.

According to the WHO, the number of cases around the world is likely to be much higher than officially recorded. Experts consider that the virus was already circulating before the contaminations started to put the medical community on alert.

The WHO is also discussing a possible change in the name of the disease, considered stigmatizing by some countries. Many scientists argue that only the name of the new strain of the circulating virus, hMPXV, should be used.

Earlier this month, more than 30 experts, most of them African, published an open letter in which they demanded that the nomenclature be changed so that it "is not discriminatory."