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INTERVIEW: Prof. Ramneek Ahluwalia explains what monkeypox is

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Medical expert Professor Ramneek Ahluwalia says monkeypox has been in existence over the last seven decades.

According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox is a disease of close contact and the risk to the general public remains low. So far, European nations, the United States, Canada and Australia confirmed or suspected around 200 cases with numbers expected to rise as more medical practitioners now look for signs and symptoms.

Ramneek says monkeypox is something that they are aware of.

He says, “It’s a zoonotic disease, what this means is that it spreads from animals to humans, and that is how it spreads. It spreads from rats, rodents, squirrels, family of rodents, and also monkeys because it affects monkeys a lot and what monkeys experience is a full-blown monkeypox as an infection.”

“Humans who are in close proximity to rodents, who are in close proximity to monkeys, in fact, can get it from the animal to a human and that is what has been monkeypox for us as humans getting infected, but what has been small outbreaks confined to a geographical location, most seen in the past was in West Africa, Central Africa remained there single digits, maximum double digits of people getting infected but very easily contained, and now what is happening is a wide geographical spread, many continents involved and that is putting alert and concern for the entire scientific world at this moment,” Ramneek adds.

Below is Medical expert Prof. Ramneek Ahluwalia’s full interview:

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