Kirkuk denies monkeypox cases amid social media rumors

Shafaq News/ Health authorities in Kirkuk have denied any cases of monkeypox, dismissing reports circulating on social media as false.

The Kirkuk Health Department said in a statement on Sunday that the governorate was entirely free of the disease and that reports of a patient at Azadi Teaching Hospital were untrue.

Saman Yabeh, head of media relations for the health department, told Shafaq News Agency there had been no confirmed cases and urged the public to rely on official sources for health information.

He warned against spreading false information about infectious diseases, saying it could cause unnecessary panic.

Yesterday, the World Health Organization declared the ongoing outbreaks of Monkey Pox, also known as Mpox, in Congo and elsewhere in Africa to be a global emergency. While it seems unlikely, the outbreaks in Africa and Europe have put health authorities on high alert, pushing for urgent action to curb the virus' transmission.

Mpox is spread primarily through close skin-to-skin contact with infected people or their soiled clothes or bedsheets. It often causes visible skin lesions that could make people less likely to be in close contact with others.

On Friday, Europe's Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said that more imported cases of mpox from Africa were "highly likely", but the chances of local outbreaks in Europe were very low.

Scientists say the risk to the general population in countries without ongoing Mpox outbreaks is low.