Monkeys are being poisoned in Brazil as some people in the country blame the animal for the monkeypox outbreak. Local media have reported dozens of incidents of poisoning of monkeys in recent days.
At least 10 monkeys were poisoned at a nature reserve in Sao Paulo state — as fears of monkeypox spread grow, according to local media reports.
WHO Urges Brazilians To Stop Killing Monkeys
Similar incidents have been reported in some other cities too forcing the World Health Organization to intervene in the matter.
Urging the people to not attack monkeys, Margaret Harris, the spokeswoman for the WHO, stated that the people need to know that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans.
WHO Blames Name Of The Ailment For The Poisoning
Admitting that the disease can spread from animals to humans, Harris underlined that the recent outbreak is between humans only.
Brazil has more than 1700 cases of monkeypox, according to figures from the WHO. One person died from the disease on July 29, according to Brazil's Health Ministry, reported Associated Press.
Blaming the name of the ailment as the main reason for the poisoning of the monkeys, Harris stressed that the concern should be about where "it [is circulating] in the human population and what humans can do to protect themselves from getting it and transmitting it. People should certainly not be attacking any animals."
Maurício Lacerda, a virologist at the Faculty of Medicine of Rio Preto stated that when it comes to the virus, the monkeys of Brazil do not pose a threat to locals, according to The Washington Post.
"What we are seeing in Brazil, Europe and the United States is ... people who are sick and are transmitting through close contact to other people. There is no evidence of monkeypox virus circulating in monkeys in the Brazil. There is no need to panic," he said, reported The Post.
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