After a one-year outbreak of monkey pox (now called Mpox) infecting nearly 90,000 people and around 140 people dying, the World Health Organization (WHO) finally downgraded the status of this disease from a global health emergency threat in May 2023.
Mpox, or what was previously known as monkey pox, spread rapidly in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when public awareness of health was at its highest.
“Mpox continues to pose a significant public health challenge and requires a decisive, proactive and sustainable response,” stressed the head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the time. And his statement is true.
In mid-December, WHO again sounded the alarm about the Mpox outbreak.
Threat of Mpox outbreak from Congo
On December 15, WHO warned that the Mpox epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had the potential to spread throughout the world, because an increase in transmission through sexual contact had been detected.
Two days earlier, the Japanese Ministry of Health had even reported for two days that the country had experienced its first death due to Mpox.
The patient had no previous HIV infection and no travel history, and it is still unclear how he became infected, the health ministry said in a statement.
Currently there is an ongoing outbreak in Asia, such as in Japan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China, so the spread of Mpox does not only have the potential to emerge from Africa.
However, Rosamund Lewis, WHO technical lead for Mpox, said she was “concerned” there would be ongoing global transmission originating from the DRC.
According to Lewis, there is a “rapidly expanding epidemic in the country,” where there are more than 13,000 suspected cases of Mpox, with more than 1,000 cases per month. Meanwhile, so far, there have been more than 600 deaths.
How do you get Mpox?
Although Mpox can be transmitted through sexual contact, experts do not describe it as a sexually transmitted infection (STI). However, sexual intercourse is one of the main transmission media.
An official statement from WHO revealed that Mpox is spread through close contact with infected people. This includes talking and breathing near an infected person, or even through “droplets” as we learned during the COVID pandemic. Apart from that, the main transmission is also through sexual activity.
“Skin-to-skin (touching or vaginal/anal sex); mouth-to-mouth (such as kissing); or mouth-to-skin contact (such as oral sex or skin kissing). During the global outbreak that began in 2022 , this virus is mostly spread through sexual contact.”
This virus can also spread through wounds, infections, and contact with mucous membranes, so it is recommended to wash your hands after contact. Disinfecting surfaces is also very important to prevent Mpox from spreading.
Advertisement
Mpox can also be transmitted from animals to humans, for example if infected animals are consumed by humans but the meat is not cooked properly. There are other indications that Mpox can spread from humans to animals, such as pets, but the evidence is not yet conclusive.
What exactly is Mpox?
Mpox is a contagious virus called monkey pox. Experts now prefer to call it Mpox to avoid associations with monkeys or the idea that monkeypox does not affect humans.
Mpox was first discovered in 1958 in monkeys used for research in a Danish laboratory. The first human case was reported in a nine-month-old boy in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970.
The common symptom of Mpox is the appearance of a rash that lasts for 2-4 weeks. The Mpox rash often looks blistered or swollen, and can affect the face, palms and soles of the feet, as well as the groin, genitals and anal area.
The rash can range from just a few blisters to thousands, with lesions found in the mouth, throat, rectum and genitals. Therefore, the high risk of transmitting Mpox is through sexual activity.
Other symptoms are also similar to viral infections in general, such as fever, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and swollen glands.
In severe cases, Mpox is also associated with secondary bacterial infections, and can spread to the lungs, eyes, brain and heart. Mpox mortality rates range between 0.1% and 10% case by case.
How is Mpox treated?
There is an antiviral drug called tecovirimat SIGA, which is used to treat monkey pox, cow pox, and “smallpox” which is often confused with chicken pox which has been eradicated.
The European medicines regulatory agency said that the three smallpox infections were all caused by viruses from the same family, known as orthopoxvirus.
Tecovirimat will interfere with a protein (VP37), which is normally found on the surface of viruses, thereby slowing a virus’s ability to spread.
There are three Mpox vaccines currently being developed through smallpox research. Even so, WHO does not recommend mass vaccination for Mpox.
It states that “only people at risk should be considered for vaccination” and people at risk are those who have close contact with infected people, but are not limited to, sexual partners and health workers only.
(kp/gtp)
2023-12-21 06:08:00
#Warns #Mpox #Outbreak #Potential #Spread #World
