MONKEYPOX. While the first case of monkeypox was detected in France last week, the hypothesis of a new epidemic worries. Origin, contamination, symptoms, mortality, treatment… Here’s what you need to know about the virus…
The essential
- Will monkey pox, known as “Monkeypox”, cause a new epidemic in France and around the world, while the coronavirus crisis is not yet over? The Ministry of Health announced a first case in France, in the Paris region, this Friday, May 20, 2022.
- Transmission of monkeypox could be rapid. Since the beginning of May, many cases of this new disease have been recorded, in Africa, the United States and Canada, but also now in Europe, whether in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain. The virus is transmitted mainly through saliva.
- Monkeypox has a low mortality rate, with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating its fatality rate between 1% and 10%, “most deaths occurring in the youngest”. Although it is often mild, it can cause serious symptoms, especially in men.
- Symptoms to look out for for monkeypox are the often high fever, headache, body aches and fatigue. But it is especially the arrival of pimples or blisters after a few days, on the face then the extremities and the mucous membranes, which seems the most revealing: pustules containing liquid which end up peeling off and falling off.
–
And immediately
<!– AMP-LIVE-REMOVE-ME –>
15:56 – And transmission in humans, how does it happen?
Once a human subject is infected, they can transmit monkeypox. This transmission occurs through respiratory droplets during prolonged face-to-face contact. The longer the exposure time, the more serious the form of the disease is likely to be. However, Dr Colin Brown, Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections at the UK Health Security Agency (Ukhsa) is reassuring: “It is important to stress that monkeypox is not easily transmitted between people and that the overall risk to the general public is very low.”
–
14:59 – How do you get monkeypox?
In the majority of cases, the virus is transmitted to humans via infected rodents or primates. This requires contact with blood, body fluids or skin lesions. It is also possible to catch it by eating an infected animal that has not been cooked enough.
–
14:08 – Is there a treatment?
No, there is no actual treatment. Also, there is no vaccine against monkeypox. The World Health Organization indicates that patients recover with proper care. If infected people received a dose of smallpox vaccination at younger ages, then they would be prone to milder forms of the disease according to the WHO.
–
13:46 – A dangerous virus for humans?
According to the WHO, the case fatality rate of monkeypox ranges from 1 to 10%. It depends on several factors, and in particular that of age since young children seem to be more susceptible to monkeypox. In addition, the World Health Organization indicates that the serious cases observed would be linked to the duration of exposure to the virus, but also to the initial health of the infected people. Moreover, the complications are different depending on these different factors.
–
13:22 – Where does this disease come from?
Monkeypox, orthopoxvirus, is usually seen in remote areas of West and Central Africa. Thus, according to the World Health Organization, it would have appeared following the combination of two factors: the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the cessation of smallpox vaccination. Still according to the WHO? the first infected patient dates back to 1970, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
–
12:45 – What are the symptoms of monkey pox?
We’ve been talking about it for a few days, but one question remains: what are the symptoms of monkeypox? If you catch this virus, you should see skin lesions appear, which will turn into scabs. Visually speaking, one could be mistaken and think that one has contracted chickenpox. It takes a few weeks for the symptoms to subside. Especially since you may also have fever, headaches, fatigue and muscle aches.
–<!– AMP-LIVE-REMOVE-ME –>
Learn more
The Directorate General of Health (DSG) announced, this Friday, May 20, 2022, the detection of a first case of monkey pox in France and precisely in Ile-de-France. Initially, the DGS had announced the day before that a suspected case had been detected in the Paris region.
The Ministry of Health specified that “as soon as the suspicion of his infection, this person was taken care of. In the absence of gravity, he is isolated at his home”. The patient is “a 29-year-old man with no history of travel to a country where the virus is circulating”. The health authorities detail that an “in-depth epidemiological investigation is being carried out by the teams of Public Health France and the ARS Île-de-France” and that “the people who have been in close contact with this patient are in the process of census”.
According to the first findings of the World Health Organization (WHO), monkeypox originated in Central and West Africa. Countries such as Nigeria or Cameroon would be the main sources of origin. Known since the 1970s, this disease usually tends to develop in tropical areas. Seeing it develop in countries without this climate comes as a surprise to scientists.
Cases of monkeypox have been imported into Western countries since its discovery, including the United States, where they have remained “rare”, according to the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC). Indeed, in the spring of 2003, cases had been confirmed in the country, thus marking the first appearance of this disease outside the African continent.
England was the first to sound the alarm. A first patient with monkeypox was identified there on May 7, it was a person returning from a trip to Nigeria. The British health security agency assures that with the exception of the first case detected, the transmission between the other cases would have taken place within the country. This Friday, 11 new cases were identified in the United Kingdom, bringing the total to 20.
That same day, Spain, Portugal, Canada and the United States, in turn, reported having spotted the presence of monkeypox, or what appears to be, on their territory. The next day, Sweden and Italy detected the first case in their countries. This Friday, May 20, in addition to the first case in France, the German daily Der Spiegel reports that a first infection was detected Thursday in Germany, according to the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology in Munich. Also, Belgium announces that it has found two cases on its territory.
According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox is contracted by “consumption of undercooked meat from infected animals.” Indeed, originally, it is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted by animals, mainly rodents. Human transmission would be the result of contact with a person already contaminated or with their organic fluids (saliva in particular).
But monkeypox can also be transmitted through close contact with infected respiratory tract secretions, skin lesions of an infected person, or objects recently contaminated with body fluids or material from a patient’s lesions. Sexual relations could thus spread the disease according to the British Health Security Agency. Protected intercourse is therefore recommended.
Symptoms resemble those of smallpox patients, but milder. In the first 5 days, the infection causes several symptoms: fever, headache, swelling of the lymph nodes (adenopathy), back pain, muscle pain (myalgia) and exhaustion (asthenia).
Within 1-3 days (sometimes longer) of the onset of fever, the patient develops rash symptoms that often start on the face and then spread to other parts of the body, including the palms of the hands , the soles of the feet and the mucous membranes (mouth and genital area). Itching is common. The lesions pass through different successive stages: macules, papules, vesicles, pustules and crusts. When the scabs fall off, people are no longer contagious.
The other mucous membranes (ENT, conjunctivae) may also be affected. “The incubation of the disease can range from 5 to 21 days. The fever phase lasts about 1 to 3 days. The disease, generally mild, most often heals spontaneously, after 2 to 3 weeks” emphasizes Public Health France .
If the symptoms seem virulent, especially in men, the mortality rate remains low. Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) affirms that “in general, the fatality rate has been between 1% and 10%, with most deaths occurring in the youngest”.
Two years after the start of the coronavirus epidemic, should we be worried about the spread of a new virus? According to Antoine Gessain, head of the epidemiology and physiopathology of oncogenic viruses unit at the Institut Pasteur, monkeypox presents only a low level of danger, as he explained to BFM TV. No vaccine is necessary. He even wants to be reassuring: “there is not much risk of a major pandemic.”
Some countries quickly adopted measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The health authorities of Portugal and Spain have thus triggered a national health alert. Italy said the situation was “under constant surveillance” and Swedish authorities are “now investigating with regional infection control centers to find out if there are more cases”.
Spain decided to take the lead. The Iberian kingdom said on Thursday that it was preparing to purchase thousands of smallpox vaccines, normally intended to fight against smallpox, an extremely serious disease that the WHO had declared eradicated in 1980. “We must find a way to quickly buy these vaccines because it is a very valuable tool to stop the epidemic”, commented to the Madrid daily El Pais Elena Andradas, the director general of public health for the community of Madrid. This vaccine is not intended to be administered to the general population, but only to contacts of confirmed cases.
According to an article in La Tribune, at the end of 2012, France had a strategic stock of 1st generation vaccines of more than 82 million doses. These stocks have been kept for 40 years by the Army Health Service (SSA).
–
