Monkeypox scare grips countries

Cases of the rare monkeypox viral disease have been detected in at least 12 countries and experts are cautiously concerned about yet another health disaster.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, word of another pathogen spreading to nations has many people scared. As MIMS Doctor goes to press, scores of new monkeypox cases have been detected in Europe and North America. There were 100 cases reported in Spain, 37 in Portugal, 56 in England, and 23 in Canada. In the US, two more cases were reported in Utah and one each in Florida and New York.

The WHO warned that infection is likely to spread to more nations even as the agency expands surveillance.

Quarantine with monkeypox

Belgium was the first country to introduce a 21-day compulsory quarantine for confirmed monkeypox patients after four cases have been reported there. The UK has confirmed 20 cases that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advised people who had close contact with monkeypox patients to self-isolate for 21 days.

High-risk contacts include sex partners, those who live in the same house, or anyone who comes into contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids, either through broken skin, respiratory droplets, or aerosols that linger in the air.

Other than self-isolating, people who have had that level of exposure to monkeypox cases were advised by the UKSHA to avoid contact with immunosuppressed people, pregnant women, and children younger than 12 years, where possible.

Scientists remain unclear as to what is driving the outbreak, and currently, there is no evidence that the virus has mutated.

Monkeypox is caused by an orthopoxvirus that is closely related to the variola virus causing smallpox. Symptoms are quite similar to smallpox such as fever, sore muscles, headache, plus distinctive rash and blisters that can be severe and fatal among children. What’s different — and concerning — about the cases is that it is occurring as clusters of monkeypox infections outside of Africa where the virus is endemic. Many of the cases also present with clusters of pimple-like spots in the genital area, which is an uncommon area for the monkeypox rash to start.

The virus was first identified in monkeys in the 1950s and human infections have been sporadic since then.

Don’t be overly concerned, says US CDC

Dr Agam  Rao, an infectious disease specialist and poxvirus expert at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the strain of monkeypox currently detected is relatively mild. The public doesn’t have to be overly concerned for now.

“We are trying to understand how these cases are related to each other and what the causes are,” said Rao. “The risk remains very rare.”

“Monkeypox is not as highly transmissible as smallpox, or measles, and certainly not COVID,” assured Dr Anne Rimoin, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of California Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, US. “Unlike COVID-19, where infected people can spread the disease before getting sick, monkeypox is not considered contagious prior to developing the symptoms.”

Still, the trajectory of the outbreak is yet uncertain and health experts remain vigilant. If the monkeypox outbreak becomes bigger than it already is, this will test whether the world –  already primed for such an outbreak –  has learned anything from COVID-19.