Monkeypox: what is this disease detected in Europe and North America and what risks does it pose to health
A strange virus is spreading.
The appearance of a case of monkeypox in the United Kingdom on May 7 set off alarms.
As the days went by, the disease began to spread and nine infected have already been identified in that country, with one peculiarity: sexual intercourse seems to play an important role in the spread .
The United States reported a confirmed case this Wednesday; a man who had recently traveled to Canada and was hospitalized, although he was in good condition.
Portugal reported on Tuesday that it detected five cases of men between 20 Y 50 years in a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases. The following day the Iberian country identified another nine, totaling patients with monkeypox.
Spain reported this Wednesday the suspicion of eight patients who could be infected, and later raised the number to 23.
“They are all young adults and most are men who have sex with men. But not all cases are like this”, declared the general director of Public Health of the Community of Madrid, Elena Andradas, to a radio station of the Spanish Cadena Ser.
The official added that there were no women among the identified patients and that those patients who only have sex with women had “high-risk sexual relations”.
Andradas said that the infected are isolated and that they were evolving favorably.
“We are evaluating the possible usefulness of the smallpox vaccine if it is finally confirmed that we have cases of monkeypox, and the role it could play in controlling the transmission of the infection”, reported the Madrid official.
What is the monkeypox?
Monkeypox virus particle.
Monkeypox is caused by the virus of the same name , a member of the smallpox family of viruses.
“Monkeypox is a zoonosis -those diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans- of the jungle type, with incidental human infections, They generally occur sporadically in forested areas of Central and Western Africa “, the adviser on Disease Prevention and Control of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said at a press conference on Wednesday. ), the epidemiologist Enrique Pérez.
“It is caused by a virus, the smallpox virus, and it belongs to a family of viruses that are the orthopoxviruses”, he specified.
“It manifests with a pustular eruption (pimples filled with pus) and is a systemic disease that can vary from a mild form (…) to a disease more serious and even death“, he added.
In Africa, case fatality rates are between 4% and 22% and the greater Most of the patients are children.
“What do we recommend? Any disease that occurs during a trip or return from an endemic area should be reported to health professionals, also including recent travel information and vaccination history.
“Persons residing or travelers who go to endemic countries should always avoid contact with sick animals, which can harbor the smallpox virus,” Pérez said.
What is known about the first infected?
Two of the infected patients in the United Kingdom traveled from Nigeria, so it is likely that they have the strain of the virus from West Africa , which is generally mild.
The third case was a health worker who contracted the virus from one of the patients.
The following four cases, three in London and one in North East England, have no known links to each other and no travel history.
This Wednesday two more cases were identified.
The UK Health Security Agency said that anyone who has concerns that they might be infected should consult a healthcare professional.
What are the symptoms?
The majority of patients with this disease in Africa are children .
Initial symptoms include fever, headaches, swelling, back pain, muscle pain and general apathy.
Once the fever passes, a rash may develop, often starting on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body, most commonly to the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.
The rash, which can be very itchy, changes and it goes through different stages before finally forming a scab, which then falls off. The lesions can cause scarring.
The infection usually disappears on its own and lasts between two and four weeks. Most cases are mild, sometimes similar to chickenpox.
How do you get it?
Monkeypox can spread when someone is in close contact with an infected person.
Pérez, from PAHO, he said it is transmitted through large exhaled droplets. It can enter the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract, or the eyes, nose, or mouth, and has an incubation period of 6 to 13 days, although it can reach 10 days.
Viral excretion through feces can also be a route of virus transmission.
Despite which is called “monkey pox”, is also transmitted by rodents, marsupials and other primates. PAHO stated that the population “should refrain from handling animals”.
Rodents are some of the groups of animals that transmit monkeypox.
Also it can be spread by contact with infected animals or by objects contaminated with viruses, such as clothing.
How common are outbreaks?
The virus was first identified in a captive monkey and since 1970 sporadic outbreaks were reported in 10 African countries.
In 2003 there was an outbreak in the US, the first time it was seen the disease outside of Africa.
Patients contracted the disease through close contact with rodents that had been infected by a shipment of small mammals – rats, dormouse and squirrels- imported from Africa.
A total of 81 cases, but none resulted in death.
In 2017, Nigeria experienced the largest documented outbreak, about 40 years after the country had its last confirmed cases of monkeypox. There were 170 cases suspects and the 29% of the victims were men between 21 Y 40 years.
There is no treatment for monkeypox, but outbreaks can be controlled by infection prevention.
Vaccination against smallpox has been shown to have an efficacy of 85 % in the prevention of monkeypox and is still used sometimes.
One of the near 20 patients infected with monkeypox in the United States in 2003, when the first cases were registered in the American continent.
Is there a resurgence of monkeypox?
In Africa, yes. From 1970 to date, more cases were detected than in the 40 previous years, as Raúl Rivas González, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Salamanca, wrote in an article published in The Conversation.
Regarding the reason for this resurgence, Rivas González marks four reasons:
the cessation of vaccination against smallpox in 1980, which produced a drop in immunity against orthopoxviruses;
the most frequent exposure to animals that are reservoirs of the disease;
the increase in the transmission rate between humans, especially those who are immunocompromised;
the progress in the ability to diagnose and the development of health education programs.
Should I be concerned?
British experts say they are nowhere near a local outbreak and, according to England’s public health office, the risk to the population is low.
Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Nottingham, said: “The fact that only one of the 50 contacts of the initial monkeypox-infected patient has been infected sample how little infectious the virus is”.
Nick Phin, deputy director of the National Infection Service of the English public health office He added: “It is important to emphasize that monkeypox does not spread easily between people and the risk to the general public is very low.”
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