Editorial: Monkeypox must not become the next pandemic
The fast-spreading monkeypox outbreak was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation on Saturday.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the measure had been taken in an effort to intensify the international response to what he called an "extraordinary situation".
He said the virus — a zoonotic disease primarily found in tropical rainforest areas of parts of Africa — was now spreading rapidly around the world "through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little".
He made the decision to issue the global health emergency alert despite a lack of consensus among experts serving on the UN health agency's emergency committee.
It is the first time the chief of the UN health agency has taken such action.
The move comes with more than 16,000 cases recorded in 74 countries since about May.
What is monkeypox and how do you catch it?
Monkeypox is an infection usually spread by wild animals in Central or West Africa.
It can be caught from infected wild animals, particularly rodents such as rats, mice and squirrels.
You can be infected by an animal bite or if you come into contact with an animal’s blood or bodily fluids.
It may be possible to catch monkeypox by eating meat from an infected animal that has not been properly cooked.
Human-to-human transmission can occur through touching the towels or bedding of a patient, touching monkeypox blisters, or through coughs and sneezes.
It is a cousin of the smallpox virus, and has been mostly confined to developing countries until the last few months, when it spread across Europe and the US.
Human monkeypox was first identified in 1970 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in a 9-year-old boy. It became endemic in the tropical rainforests of Central and West Africa, where 11 countries reported cases.
In June 2003, the disease was reported in the US, the first time it had been detected outside Africa.
To date, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where a more dangerous version of the virus is spreading, mainly in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
An evolving virus
In Africa, monkeypox mainly spreads to people from infected wild animals such as rodents, in limited outbreaks that typically have not crossed borders.
In Europe, North America and elsewhere, however, monkeypox is spreading among people with no links to animals or recent travel to Africa.
The WHO’s top monkeypox expert, Dr Rosamund Lewis, said this week that 99 per cent of all the cases beyond Africa were in men and that of those, 98 per cent involved men who have sex with men.
Experts suspected the monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were spread by people who attended two raves in Belgium and Spain.
What are the symptoms and how is it treated?
Most monkeypox patients experience fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious cases may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands. The lesions can spread to other parts of the body.
In general, recovery takes about two to four weeks without the need to be admitted to hospital, but monkeypox can be fatal in up to 6 per cent of cases and is thought to be more severe in children.
Smallpox vaccines are effective against monkeypox and anti-viral drugs are also being developed.
Global health emergency status to boost vaccine roll-out?
The WHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the coronavirus pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.
Last month, the UN agency’s expert committee said the worldwide monkeypox outbreak did not yet amount to an international emergency, but the panel convened this week to re-evaluate the situation.
Sounding the alarm on monkeypox aims to heighten the international response to the virus, opening up the prospect of more funding to fight the outbreak the wider roll-out of vaccines.
The WHO states prior vaccination against smallpox has been found to be about 85 per cent effective in preventing monkeypox, indicating previous smallpox vaccination may result in milder illness.
The health organisation said a newer vaccine was approved for the prevention of monkeypox in 2019.
This is a two-dose vaccine for which availability remains limited, the WHO.
Dr Tedros said the WHO's assessment deems the risk from monkeypox to be moderate globally and in all regions, except for in Europe, where the risk is high.
There have been more than 2,200 cases in the UK alone.
The UK's National Health Service said this week it would step up its monkeypox vaccination programme.
Health officials said 100,000 more doses of an effective immunisation had been bought.
The EU signed an agreement in June for the supply of about 110,000 doses of the Imvanex shot, known as Jynneos in the US.
Imvanex is currently authorised in the EU for the prevention of Smallpox in adults and has been recommended for use against monkeypox by the European Medicines Agency.
The US has delivered 300,000 vaccine doses and is working on the delivery of close to 800,000 more.
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Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Kites
Romain Gary
Penguin Modern Classics
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Company%20profile
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The%20specs
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Scores in brief:
- New Medical Centre 129-5 in 17 overs bt Zayed Cricket Academy 125-6 in 20 overs.
- William Hare Abu Dhabi Gymkhana 188-8 in 20 overs bt One Stop Tourism 184-8 in 20 overs
- Alubond Tigers 138-7 in 20 overs bt United Bank Limited 132-7 in 20 overs
- Multiplex 142-6 in 17 overs bt Xconcepts Automobili 140 all out in 20 overs
The specs: 2018 Peugeot 5008
Price, base / as tested: Dh99,900 / Dh134,900
Engine: 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power: 165hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 240Nm @ 1,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 5.8L / 100km
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
The specs: 2019 Subaru Forester
Price, base: Dh105,900 (Premium); Dh115,900 (Sport)
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 182hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 239Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.1L / 100km (estimated)
Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe
Price, base: Dh201,153
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 204hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 300Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
Profile
Company: Libra Project
Based: Masdar City, ADGM, London and Delaware
Launch year: 2017
Size: A team of 12 with six employed full-time
Sector: Renewable energy
Funding: $500,000 in Series A funding from family and friends in 2018. A Series B round looking to raise $1.5m is now live.
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Final scores
18 under: Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)
- 14: Jason Scrivener (AUS)
-13: Rory McIlroy (NIR)
-12: Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP)
-11: David Lipsky (USA), Marc Warren (SCO)
-10: Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Chris Paisley (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR)
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
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'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
