As cases of Monkeypox virus have been reported in more non-endemic countries on Sunday, a British virologist said it would not become a COVID-like pandemic.
“Monkeypox is not a COVID situation and will never be a COVID situation. It will be a problem, but it will be a problem that we will eventually be able to control. I am quite convinced,” said Paul Hunter, a specialist in medical microbiology and disease control. transmissible.
“Ultimately, it’s something we can control before it becomes a really important issue. The reason for that is that we already have a pretty effective vaccine, the same vaccine we use with smallpox. “This vaccine is that you can give to someone after they have been in contact with a case,” Hunter told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.
“So the way to control that is to identify all the cases you can as quickly as you can and then vaccinate all your closed contacts. The technical term is ring vaccination for that. You vaccinate a ring around the case and hopefully then stop spreading, “he added.
More than 120 cases of the virus, a close relative of smallpox, have now been reported in a disease typically confined to parts of Africa. With Israel, Switzerland and Austria among the last countries to confirm Monkeypox cases, at least 15 countries have reported outbreaks.
The UK Health Safety Agency reported on Monday 36 additional cases of monkeypox in England, bringing the total number of cases of monkeypox confirmed in England from 7 May to 56.
In addition to Britain and continental Europe, there have been cases in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Hunter said many, but not all, cases have been reported to be found in men who have sex with men. “So it’s quite plausible that it’s spreading now among sexually active networks in a way that normally in Africa, you wouldn’t see it.”
It is probably an infection that is spreading mainly among sexual networks of close contacts, but not exclusively. And you have a little bit of infection spreading from the outside. So at the moment we are not sure how he will behave, so I think we have to be very careful, “he said.
Monkeypox is also potentially more serious in children who come in contact with the virus, said Hunter, also a professor of medicine at Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia.
“There is a problem with monkeypox in children. In African cases we see more serious diseases in children than in adults,” Hunter said.
Hunter said more cases are likely to be reported in Britain and elsewhere in the coming weeks.
“But I think the UK Health Security Agency is right when it says that this is not a disease that spreads very easily and therefore would probably not pose a major risk to the general population. “But with some parts of the population that seem to be most at risk, proper advice and management will be needed when they have been in contact with cases,” Hunter said.
At this time, Hunter said, there are still many scientists who “do not know how this virus is spreading, and through what networks it is spreading, and how it is infecting people and from whom, because it is almost certain that it will be. past someone else “.
“I’m pretty sure people will do a lot more than genetics on this, but I think most of us will have to do a little bit of background reading over the next few days to make sure we know what happened. It’s happening. for two years now, we’ve been reading just about coronavirus stuff, “he said.
“There’s definitely a lot of nervousness right now about viral infections among the general public, and a lot of that nervousness is well-placed. I think we need to consider every new infection we’re exposed to from what we know about this infection, “the expert said.
“The information and knowledge we have acquired with COVID does not necessarily apply to monkeypox, and it is a very different infection from COVID that will in no way cause the same levels of damage that COVID has to health. public relations between people and society. “