London — A key advisor to the World Health Organization explains the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox, a rare disease in developed countries, by sexual or close physical contact at two recent major events in Europe. Described as a possible “random event”.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Dr. David Hayman, a former WHO emergency department leader, said the main theory explaining the epidemic of the disease was gay and bisexual in two rave events in Spain and Belgium. He said it was a sexually transmitted disease between sexual men. Monkeypox has never been widespread outside Africa and is endemic to animals.
“We know that monkeypox can spread when in close contact with the lesions of an infected person. It seems that sexual contact amplifies the infection,” Hayman said.
This is important from the typical epidemic pattern of this disease in central and western Africa, where people mainly infect animals such as wild rodents and primates and outbreaks do not flow across national borders. It shows a deviation.
To date, WHO has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in 12 countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the United States and Australia.
Health officials in Madrid said on Monday that the Spanish capital had recorded 30 confirmed cases so far. Enrique Luis Escudero said authorities are investigating the possibility of a link between a recent gay pride event in the Canary Islands, which was attended by about 80,000 people, and an incident in Madrid’s sauna.
Hayman chaired an emergency meeting of the WHO advisory group on the threat of infectious diseases on Friday, assessing the ongoing epidemic and there is no evidence that monkeypox may have changed to a more infectious form. Stated.
Monkeypox usually causes fever, chills, rashes, and facial and genital lesions. It can be spread by close contact with the infected person and their clothing and sheets, but sexually transmitted diseases have not yet been recorded. Most people recover from their illness within a few weeks without the need for hospitalization. Vaccines against smallpox, a related disease, are also effective in preventing monkeypox, and several antiviral drugs have been developed.
In recent years, the disease has been fatal in up to 6% of infectious diseases, but no deaths have been reported in current cases. According to WHO, the confirmed case is a less serious West African monkeypox virus group so far, first detected in cases exported from Nigeria to the United Kingdom, Israel and Singapore between 2018 and 2019. It seems to be related to the virus.
UN agencies have said that the outbreak is a “very rare event” and the fact that cases have been seen in so many different countries may have caused the disease to spread quietly for some time. Said suggesting. The agency’s European director warned that mass gatherings, festivals and parties could accelerate the spread of monkeypox as the summer begins across the continent.
Other scientists have pointed out that it will be difficult to determine whether the recent epidemic of monkeypox throughout Europe is sexuality itself or close sexual contact.
Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, said:
On Sunday, Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser to the UK’s Department of Health and Security, said he hopes to identify more cases of monkeypox “every day” in the country.
Sorry, this video has expired.
British officials say the “notable proportion” of cases in the UK and Europe are young men who have no history of traveling to Africa and have sex with gay, bisexual, or male men. Officials in Portugal and Spain also said that their case was primarily a man who had sex with another man and that the infection was found when he sought help with the lesion at a sexual health clinic.
Hayman, a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the outbreak of monkeypox could be an accidental event that could result from a single infection. Said it was expensive.
“It is very likely that someone has become infected and has lesions on the genitals, hands, or elsewhere and has spread it to others when there is sexual or close physical contact,” Hayman said. Made a hypothesis. “And there were these international events around the world that brought outbreaks to the United States and other European countries.”
He emphasized that the disease is unlikely to cause widespread infection.
“This is not Covid,” he said. “We need to slow it down, but it doesn’t spread in the air and there are vaccines to prevent it,” Hayman said, whether monkeypox can spread to asymptomatic people. The study needs to be carried out promptly to determine, and populations at risk of illness should take precautions to protect themselves.
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire