Croatia has so far registered ten cases of monkeypox, all the patients are men aged between 30 and 50, and in two cases it was established that they contracted the disease abroad, epidemiologist Goranka Petrovic said on Sunday.

Croatia expects first batches of vaccines against this rare infectious disease in the coming weeks.

Each member country of the EU will prepare its own plan for containing the spread of the disease, Dr. Petrovic said, adding that the European Commission had organised joint public procurement of the vaccines. The amount of doses distributed will be proportionate to the population of each member country.

Croatia expects to receive 1,400 doses for those who have been close contacts with the monkeypox patients.

According to the explanation given by the World health Organisation (WHO), monkeypox is usually a self-limited disease with the symptoms lasting from 2 to 4 weeks. Severe cases can occur. In recent times, the case fatality ratio has been around 3–6 percent.

Monkeypox is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, or with material contaminated with the virus.

By July 23 this year, 3040 cases of monkeypox had been reported to WHO, from 47 countries around the world.

This prompted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to declare the global monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

“Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners,” said Ghebreyesus.

“That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups,” reads a press release on the WHO website.

It is therefore essential that all countries work closely with communities of men who have sex with men, to design and deliver effective information and services, and to adopt measures that protect the health, human rights, and dignity of affected communities.

Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus, the WHO noted.