France Prepares for New Monkeypox Cases
Health Minister Frederic Valletoux Speaks Out
The French Ministry of Health and Prevention is preparing for sporadic cases of a new variant of monkeypox (mpox). Frederic Valletoux, France’s health minister, shared this information in a statement to Le Journal du Dimanche, a French Sunday newspaper.
Valletoux mentioned that there is a significant possibility of seeing sporadic cases of the new mpox variant in France soon. He also noted that around 150,000 people were vaccinated over the past three years following an outbreak of clade II of mpox in 2002. However, it is still too early to determine if these vaccinations will be effective against the new variant.
Doubts Revealed
Monkeypox -: Monkeypox is a disease caused by a virus. It can make people feel sick with symptoms like fever, rash, and swollen glands.
Variant -: A variant is a different form of a virus. Sometimes viruses change a little bit, and these new forms are called variants.
Health Minister -: A Health Minister is a person in the government who is in charge of making sure people in the country stay healthy. They make important decisions about hospitals, doctors, and medicines.
Frederic Valletoux -: Frederic Valletoux is the name of the person who is currently the Health Minister in France. He helps make decisions about health in the country.
Vaccinated -: Being vaccinated means getting a special medicine, called a vaccine, that helps protect you from getting sick with certain diseases.
2002 outbreak -: An outbreak is when a lot of people get sick with the same disease at the same time. In 2002, many people got sick with monkeypox, which is why they started giving vaccines.
