Isolating from pets when infected and disposing of rubbish carefully is important, health experts say.
"This has not been reported before, and we believe it is the first instance of a canine being infected," said Dr Rosamund Lewis, technical lead on the monkeypox response at the WHO."But what we don't want to see happen is disease moving from one species to the next, and then remaining in that species moving around within a new species because that's when the virus can adapt, and then adapting to that new species is incentivised to evolve as such.
Dr Sylvie Briand, director of global infectious hazard preparedness at the WHO, added: "It's the first time, so it means that dogs can be infected, but it doesn't mean that the dog can transmit the disease and infect other dogs, nor does it mean that the dog can re-infect human if it is infected."There has been a 20% increase in cases reported over the past week, which was also 20% more than the week before.
Most cases are in men who have sex with men and global health leaders stress the importance for all countries to give information to these communities to help protect their health.In large outbreaks - and more than 35,000 people have been infected - rare events can occur that eventually prove inconsequential.
However, the issue of animals catching the virus will have to be monitored closely as this virus has form. Monkeypox has shown a knack for infecting a wide range of mammals including squirrels, rats, dormice, monkeys and, of course, us.Outbreaks in West and Central Africa were all started by an infected animal andThe big concern is if the virus gets into animals in countries that don't normally have monkeypox - then those creatures could become a long-term source of infection.
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