“We are not at all in the same context as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic” reassured Friday May 20 on franceinfo Yannick Simonin, virologist specializing in emerging viruses, while a case of monkeypox was detected in France, in the Paris region. He is a 29-year-old man who has been isolated at his home. “It is an overall benign virus in humans”, he points out. “We will not go into the massive vaccination scheme” as for the Covid-19, he assures.
>> Five Questions About the Dozens of Confirmed Cases of Monkeypox in Europe and North America
franceinfo: How was this person infected?
Yannick Simonin: We will have to monitor who this person was in contact with. Is he in contact with a person who returned from an endemic area, an area where this virus circulates, mainly in West Africa? There will be a research campaign that will be carried out to see all the contact cases, then try to identify patient zero, the patient at the origin of this infection. This positive person has not returned from a trip, so she was contaminated, probably on French territory. It will take careful research.
Has this disease already been detected outside of Africa?
It’s not common, but it’s happened before. The first epidemic outside Africa, outside an active circulation zone for this virus, was identified in 2003 in the United States. There have been approximately 80 cases that have been identified. These were people who were exposed to animals, since this zoonotic disease can be transmitted from animals to humans to pets. Then, we regularly had a few cases, especially in 2018, in the United Kingdom. There are three cases that had been identified, including one person who did not return from a trip. She was probably contaminated on the spot. But it is quite rare epidemics outside Africa linked to this virus.
After two years of pandemic, should we be worried?
We are not at all in the same context as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It is not a new virus whereas the SARS-CoV-2, we did not know it at all even if we knew similar viruses.
“It is a virus that we have known for more than 60 years. We know that it is transmitted little from man to man. There must be close, prolonged contact.
Yannick Simonin, virologically
at franceinfo
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We also have more reassuring elements, linked to the fact that it is a virus which is generally benign in humans. Especially since we know that the variant currently circulating in Europe, but also in North America, is the West African variant, which is the less virulent variant of the two known variants of this smallpox. of the monkey. Nevertheless, this still implies vigilance linked to the fact that human-to-human transmissions seem to be more important than what has been observed so far with past epidemics.
Can the human smallpox vaccine be effective?
The classic human smallpox vaccine has proven effective against monkeypox. Its efficiency is estimated to be around 85%, which is a very good efficiency. If ever the epidemic spreads in Europe and elsewhere, we will probably not go into the massive vaccination scheme as we have seen with Covid-19, but we can imagine a vaccination of contact cases, it is i.e. vaccination of the entourage of a positive case. It is a benign disease which is transmitted very little. Therefore, vaccination will eventually take place if we notice a change in this virus and if we have warning signs that appear in the weeks or months to come.
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