If the monkeys of Kenya, particularly the colobus monkeys, an endangered species that it is still possible to admire, especially on the coast of the African country, could speak out, they would rebel against the new media exaggeration that, as in almost all topics that are now treated and disseminated, tends to make a single cauldron of everything, to the advantage of those who profit from it.
This is what is happening with the so-called ‘monkeypox’, little more than an infectious disease for which there is already a vaccine, but for which in some poor countries where the population does not have much access to healthcare, nor do governments take precautions, since this is not done for much more serious diseases.
But if the figures for the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country where a tourist would not set foot even for a fee and a ‘do-it-yourself’ traveller only goes for business or particular interests, speak of more than 500 deaths, the World Health Organisation has decided, just to wash their hands of disinfectants they have produced, to warn travellers against going to Congo and neighbouring countries, citing a handful of cases also in Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Republic.
And this is where the click-baiting press comes in, to which many but not all have by now grown accustomed, except for the monkeys who, fortunately for them, are hardly ever called upon.
Which are the most attractive countries in central and sub-Saharan Africa? Let me see...of course, Kenya! ‘I don't believe it...there was also a case (it was a Ugandan citizen on the Tanzanian border, but who cares), plus their Ministry of Health launched the emergency, partly because they don't have any vaccines at home (what a novelty...).’ Even though the African Union health department has promised 50,000 doses as soon as possible.
And on with the news!
Here it is that, even if the WHO did not mention Kenya, we can safely report that destination too, which is a tourist destination, given that the boom is coming back, with a significant year-on-year increase in admissions and the resumption of charters.
But the monkeys are not buying it. They would like to ask why no one says that the colobus and other monkey families in Kenya do not transmit Mpox, do not have in their bodies either the now known Clade I or Clade II. And if Clade III comes out before iPhone 17, they won't have that either.
The confirmation comes from Luciana Parazzi, Kenya's colobus luminary and founder of the Colubus Conservation Centre in Diani, on the Kenyan coast. And she, who talks to monkeys every day, as well as saving and caring for dozens and dozens of them, assures us that her friends are fed up with generalisations and superficiality with a double aim for the clever.
Finally, an invitation to tourists: continue to visit Kenya and consider smallpox for what it is, a disease whose symptoms are visible and from which people die far less than from an olive stone that goes down your throat, except in Congo where they don't have olive trees anyway. But please don't even make the opposite mistake of falling too much in love with the cute little monkeys and listening to the beach boys who, for example, take you to the ruins of Gede, near Watamu (recently declared a UNESCO national heritage site).
There are videos circulating on the net of tourists feeding the rare colobus and other specimens, which is not only forbidden, but detrimental to their health. And Luciana Parazzi knows this well, because then the delicate and beautiful colobuses are transported (badly) to her centre, and often arrive there in a desperate condition. This is also why a care and conservation centre for the species in Watamu would be desirable.
In the end, the monkeys are right: mental illnesses transmitted by man to the planet, nature and the animals that inhabit it, will always be the most serious and dangerous.