smallpox
Getty Monkeypox
With the increase in cases of smallpox in monkeys, health officials are asking people to pay more attention to the outbreak.
“This is something we definitely need to take seriously. We still don’t know its scope and potential, but we need to act as if it has the capacity to spread much more widely than it is spreading right now.” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told CNN on Saturday.
Dr Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, commented on the gravity of the situation on Sunday’s Face the Nation: “I think the window has probably been closed to control and contain it. If not it’s closed. it’s definitely starting to close, ”Gottlieb said.
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Last Friday, the number of cases in the United States reached 1,469, more than the 929 cases confirmed earlier in the week, according to the CDC’s 2022 smallpox outbreak global map. There are 12,556 cases worldwide, according to the agency.
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Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency through Getty
Dr. Anne Rimoin, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA who spent two decades in the Democratic Republic of Congo studying smallpox in monkeys, said there is probably an insufficient count due to lack of evidence.
Rimoin spoke with NPR last week and criticized world leaders for initiating a global response to monkeypox only when it spread beyond Africa.
“This virus has spread to marginalized and vulnerable populations [in Africa] “For decades, and we haven’t done anything,” Rimoin told the network. “We know that monkey pox has been a potential problem for decades.”
The virus is called monkeypox because it was first identified in 1958 in monkey colonies. The first human case of the virus was found in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the CDC.
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The disease is transmitted primarily by skin-to-skin contact, according to The New York Times. Although there have been fatalities in Africa, the publication reports that the United States, which had its first case registered on May 18, has not yet had any deaths.
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Monkeypox first causes fever, headache, muscle aches, chills, and swollen lymph nodes, and after one to three days patients develop a rash that spreads through the body and becomes fluid-filled lesions. The rare virus can spread through the respiratory droplets, but is more likely to be transmitted by touching body fluids or rashes.
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Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that vaccines will now be available to anyone with suspected exposure to the virus, in addition to people with known exposure who have already been offered vaccinations.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said the department will immediately release 56,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine, with an additional 240,000 doses available in the coming weeks. In total, 1.6 million doses of the vaccine are expected by the end of the year.