The best way to protect themselves is to “reduce the risk of exposure to disease,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

“For MSM, this also means, for the time being, reducing the number of sexual partners and exchanging information with any new partner in order to be able to contact them ‘if symptoms appear, so that they can self-isolate'” explained Tedros Ghebreyesus, after The World Health Organization’s declaration on Saturday that the disease constitutes a public health emergency of international concern is the highest level of alert.

More than 18,000 cases of monkeypox have been detected worldwide since the beginning of last May, outside endemic areas of Africa.

The disease has been reported in 78 countries so far, the WHO official said, with 70% of cases concentrated in Europe and 25% in the Americas.

Five people have died from the disease (all in Africa) and about 10% of cases require hospitalization to try to relieve patients’ pain.

In Portugal, 588 cases have been confirmed

The DGS advises people with ulcerative lesions, rashes and palpable lymph nodes, which may be accompanied by fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and fatigue, to seek medical advice and to avoid direct physical contact.

The smallpox vaccine, as well as antivirals and the “immune vaccine” (VIG), can be used as prevention and treatment for monkeypox, a rare disease.

The disease, named after the virus, was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after the virus was discovered in 1958 following an outbreak of two smallpox-like diseases that occurred in colonies of monkeys kept in captivity. Inquiry – hence the name “Monkeypox” (“monkey” means monkey and “smallpox”).