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LONDON – Since May, nearly 90 countries have reported more than 31,000 cases of monkeypox.
The World Health Organization classified the growing outbreak of the previously rare disease as an international emergency in July; the US declared it a national emergency last week.
Outside Africa, 98% of cases occur in men who have sex with men. With only a limited global supply of vaccines, authorities are scrambling to stop monkeypox before it takes hold as a new disease.
CAN MONKEYPOX BE CONTAINED?
Theoretically, yes. The virus does not spread easily and there is a vaccine. But now only about 16 million doses are available, and only one company makes the vaccine.
Except in Africa, there is no sign of sustained transmission of smallpox beyond men who have sex with men, meaning that stopping the spread among this group could effectively end the outbreak. Last week, British scientists said there were “early indications” that cases of monkeypox in the UK, which previously had the world’s largest outbreak outside Africa, had peaked.
IS THIS ANOTHER PANDEMIC?
No. A pandemic means that an outbreak of disease has spread throughout the world. Monkeypox doesn’t spread as quickly as the coronavirus, and stopping it won’t require dramatic interventions like the COVID-19 lockdowns.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he declared monkeypox an emergency in part to prompt countries to take the epidemic seriously, saying there was still an opportunity to contain the disease before it become a global problem.
The spread of monkeypox usually requires skin-to-skin or skin-to-mouth contact with the lesions of an infected patient. People can also become infected through contact with the clothing or bedding of someone who has chickenpox lesions.
It can also be spread through contact with respiratory droplets, but scientists are still trying to figure out how often this happens. British health officials say they have not confirmed any cases of airborne transmission.
A large percentage of cases have been in gay and bisexual men. The initial outbreaks in Europe and North America were probably triggered by sex in two radishes in Spain and Belgium.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 99% of cases of monkeypox in the US are men. Of these, 94% reported sexual contact with other men in the three weeks prior to the development of symptoms.
However, anyone can get the virus if they are in close contact with an infected person or tissues that have touched an infected person.
WHO IS VACCINATED?
With supplies limited, health officials are not recommending mass vaccination. They suggest vaccinations for healthcare workers, people who have been in close contact with an infected person, and men at high risk of contracting monkeypox.
Officials are also trying to stretch vaccine supplies, Jynneos. It requires two doses, but many places only give one dose.
US health officials on Tuesday authorized a new strategy that would allow healthcare professionals to vaccinate up to five people, rather than one, with each vial. The approach uses only a fraction of the typical amount of vaccine and delivers it with an injection just under the skin rather than into deeper tissue. Recipients would still receive two shots per month.
WHAT ELSE CAN I DO TO REDUCE MY RISK?
The WHO’s Tedros recommended that men at risk of catching monkeypox consider making “safe choices” and reducing their sexual partners “for now.”
Britain’s Health Safety Agency has advised people to check for chickenpox lesions before having sex or going to a social event, noting that most of the country’s cases are believed to have originated in festivals, saunas and other places where sexual relations have taken place. Anyone with monkeypox lesions should self-isolate until they are completely healed, which can take up to three weeks.
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION WITH AFRICA?
Monkeypox has been endemic for decades in parts of central and western Africa, where most people have become ill after contact with infected wild animals such as rodents and squirrels. The acting director of Africa’s top public health agency said last week that sex between gay and bisexual men was “not relevant” to the continent’s outbreak, with about 40% of cases among women.
Scientists believe that outbreaks of monkeypox in Europe and North America originated in Africa long before the disease began to spread. Samples of cases in Europe show dozens of mutations, suggesting that the initial virus spread silently for months or years before the current epidemics were detected.
The version of monkeypox that spreads in Europe and North America has a lower death rate than the one circulating in Africa. Countries that didn’t see many cases of monkeypox before this outbreak have reported a handful of deaths, while Africa has had at least 100 suspected deaths this year.
WHO IS AT GREATEST RISK OF SEVERE ILLNESS?
Most people infected with monkeypox recover without treatment, but it can cause more serious symptoms such as inflammation of the brain and, in rare cases, death.
Monkey pox can be serious in children, pregnant women, and people with underlying health conditions such as cancer, tuberculosis, or HIV. In the US, the CDC says about 40% of people with monkeypox also have HIV.
The longer current outbreaks continue, the greater the chance that the virus could spread to other communities, similar to how HIV was first detected in gay men before becoming more widely established.
“There is some crossover between the sexual networks of gay and bisexual men and the networks of highly sexually active heterosexual people, so we may see monkeypox more widely,” Dr Paul said. Hunter, Professor of Medicine at the University of Great Britain. East Anglia. “If that happens, we may have a much bigger problem.”
AP writers Mike Stobbe in New York and Matthew Perrone in Washington contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.