London, Europe Brief News- The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended gay and bisexual men to limit sexual partners to reduce the spread of monkeypox.
Men who have sex with men are at the highest risk of infection right now from monkeypox, according to the WHO.
About 99% of cases are among men, and at least 95% of those patients are men who have sex with other men, according to WHO official Rosamund Lewis.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said men who have sex with men should consider limiting their sexual partners to lower their risk of infection and reduce the spread.
“For men who have sex with men, this includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners, and exchanging contact details with any new partners to enable follow-up if needed,” he said on Wednesday.
A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.
Tedros said Wednesday that more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported to WHO from 78 countries, with 70 percent of cases reported in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas.
Five deaths have been reported in the outbreak since May, and approximately 10 percent of those infected end up in hospital to manage the pain, he said.
