There are reports that are destined to increase, but we are not in the situation in which we found ourselves at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. a known virus, low contagious, with minimal effects and with a vaccine already present
Health systems in every country are monitoring cases of monkeypox
in man. For now they are about more than 110 reports from at least three continents (in addition to Africa where it is endemic)including Australia, but are set to increase as radars have recently been aimed at this virus.
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The reports
In Europe, the last ones in order of reporting come from Germania (1 case) e Sweden (1 case). Also l’Italia has updated its list con 3 almost confirmed. The distinction can only be made between suspected and confirmed cases. They are (among all), 34 in Portugal, 41 in Spain, 1 in France, 3 in Belgium, 20 in the UK, 2 in the USA, 22 in Canada, 2 in Australia. Of only 7 cases among these he notes a recent history of travel to countries where the virus is endemic. As for the Italian cases, Spallanzani let it be known that there are no known contacts between the three people involved and that the virus was already sequenced and it will be isolated next week so that neutralization trials can begin with the only vaccine available (and apparently effective): that against human smallpox.
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The hypothesis
rare to see monkeypox cross the borders of African countries and above all spread with local transmission to other countries, it is not known whether these isolated cases, however, are the result of a mutation of the virus itself or rather a combination of resumption of travel and lack of protectionas smallpox vaccination campaigns stopped in many countries in the 1970s after eradication (in Italy the last vaccines date back to 1981). Surely the vaccine (of which there are large stocks) is also effective in some way against monkeypox, even if now tests have to be done on recent cases.
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In Africa
The disease on the African continent is well known: there are two subtypes of monkeypox virus, the West African clade (the one found in the cases we are talking about) and the Congo Basin (Central Africa) clade. In the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2020 and 2022 there were 10,545 suspected cases: this is the sub-lineage that is not widespread abroad, but gives an idea of the circulation of the virus in some areas of the planet.
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Weapons available
Experts point out that we need to monitor without alarm, because we are not in the situation we found ourselves in at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic: monkeypox caused by a known, low transmission virus through close contacts (on how you get infected, read the article by Margherita De Bac, HERE), with little clinical consequences and for which there is a vaccine already available and also a therapy.
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May 20, 2022 (change May 20, 2022 | 13:44)
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