(Bloomberg) – Health officials should review how they define monkeypox cases and urgently provide more resources to sexual health clinics, researchers said, as new infections increase across Europe.
The first study of 54 patients with monkeypox in the UK found that their symptoms differed from those seen in previous outbreaks and could potentially be confused with other infections, such as herpes and syphilis, increasing the risk of misdiagnosis.
“Misdiagnosis of infection can prevent the opportunity for proper intervention and prevention of subsequent transmission,” said Ruth Byrne of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and one of the authors of the study published in the The Lancet Infectious Diseases magazine. “Additional resources are urgently needed to support services in managing this condition.”
Britain and other countries are seeing a rapid rise in smallpox cases among people in sexual health clinics, with no apparent link to countries where the disease is endemic, the authors said.
In the last two weeks, cases have tripled in the European region, the World Health Organization reported on Friday. The agency said most infections occur in men who have sex with other men, but are now reporting a small number among household members, heterosexual contacts and non-sexual contacts, as well as children. .
More than nine out of 10 patients in the UK study had monkeypox lesions in the genital region, a different feature of the current outbreak and an engine of the explosive spread of the virus through the sexual networks. Research also found a lower prevalence of fatigue and fever than in previous outbreaks.
Patients accounted for 60% of cases reported in the UK over a period of May, and all identified as men having sex with men. At least one in six patients in the study would not have met the current definition of a probable case of monkeypox, according to Nicolo Girometti, who is also in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
“We suggest that case definitions that currently detail symptoms such as acute illness with fever should be reviewed to better adapt to current findings,” he said.
The authors acknowledged some limitations with their study, mainly that it was observational and retrospective and may not be representative of the global outbreak.
The findings corroborate smaller studies from other countries that the initial presentation of monkeypox can be “subtle and mimic many sexually transmitted infections,” said Hugh Adler of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who did not participate in the study. ‘study. He added that the current UK case definitions are broader now than when the data were collected for this document.
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