By Andrea Hargraves 
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, admitted on Wednesday at a press conference that “investigations are still ongoing, but the sudden appearance of monkeypox virus in several countries at the same time indicates that it may be there. The transmission has not been detected for some time.”
In Portugal, 19 more cases were diagnosed today, bringing the total number of patients to 119.
Citing international agencies, the leading expert on smallpox at the United Nations health agency, Rosamund Lewis, posited that the emergence of more than 500 cases in many countries where the disease had not previously been detected “is clearly a cause for concern. It suggests that it has not been Discover transmission for a while.”
“We don’t know if it’s been weeks, months or maybe even a few years,” said Rosamund Lewis, acknowledging that investigators “don’t really know if it’s too late for containment.” Remember that the first case was discovered in the UK on May 7.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted that the World Health Organization urged countries to strengthen surveillance and work together to prevent the spread of the disease.
According to today’s statement from the Directorate General of Health (DGS), the 119 patients are men, ranging in age from 20 to 61, with most of them under 40 years old. All cases remain “under clinical follow-up and stable”. Most of them are from the Lisbon region and the Tagus Valley, but there are also cases in the north and the Algarve.