As cases of monkeypox spread around the world, with the medical community still struggling with the cause of the ear, it may sound alarming for some and bring back memories of the early days of COVID-19.
But health experts say monkeypox is unlikely to have a similar impact to coronavirus and cause a global pandemic, mainly because it is not a new virus and does not spread in the same way as COVID-19.
To date, there have been 25 confirmed cases of smallpox in Canada, all in Quebec.
Outbreaks of the virus have also been reported in Europe and Australia, along with the US The Czech Republic and Slovenia recently reported their first cases, and now 18 countries have detected the virus outside of West and Central Africa. .
“As surveillance increases, we hope to see more cases. But we need to put this in context because it’s not VOCID,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical director on COVID-19, in a live online question and answer Monday.
CTVNews.ca breaks down the origins of the monkeypox virus and how it is likely to differ in importance from COVID-19:
Monkeypox is not a new virus and we already know how it spreads
Smallpox was discovered in 1958; is a rare disease caused by a virus that belongs to the same family as the one that causes smallpox.
The disease was initially discovered in monkey colonies used for research. The first human case was not discovered until 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two years after smallpox was wiped out in the region.
The monkey’s smallpox “is not easily transmitted between humans,” but it can be transmitted through large droplets or direct contact with skin lesions, body fluids, or contaminated materials such as clothing, family doctor Dr. Rhonda said Wednesday. Low and CTV Morning Live.
Large respiratory drops generally do not travel far and require prolonged close contact to transmit the disease.
COVID-19 spreads much more easily. It does not require skin-to-skin contact to spread and can be transmitted over a “conventional distance,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The virus can spread during conversations with an infected person and if an infected person shares a room with you. The virus spread more quickly to poorly ventilated rooms.
A distinctive symptom of monkeypox is a rash that usually begins on the face and then spreads to the limbs or other parts of a person’s body.
“People seem to be only infected when they have these skin lesions,” Low said. “The risk to the general public is low, but we want to know if it exists.”
Experts believe the current monkeypox outbreak is spreading through close, close skin-to-skin contact with someone who has an active rash. This should make it easier to spread once the infections are identified, experts said.
“It’s not a situation where if you walk past someone at the grocery store, you run the risk of getting the monkey’s smallpox,” said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. an information session on Monday.
There is currently a vaccine that can protect against smallpox
The Orthopox virus family includes smallpox and smallpox. Smallpox, which kills millions every year, was wiped out in 1980 thanks to a successful global vaccination effort. Routine smallpox immunization for the general population ended in Canada and the United States in 1972.
The smallpox vaccine can still be used to protect against smallpox in smallpox and is more than 85% effective, according to the WHO.
There is also a more recent vaccine that was approved for monkeypox in 2019, but availability is limited. The WHO also notes that an antiviral agent known as tecovirimat developed for smallpox was authorized for smallpox in 2022 by the European Medical Association, but is not yet widely available.
Smallpox antiviral drugs could also be used to treat smallpox in certain circumstances, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said in a statement.
In Canada, the PHAC says it has given Quebec a small shipment of the Imvamune smallpox vaccine from Canada’s Strategic National Emergency Stock, with other jurisdictions capable of receiving some supplies.
In April, Public Services and Procurement Canada tendered to purchase 500,000 doses of Imvamune vaccine between 2023 and 2028.
The PHAC also says there is currently no need for mass immunizations for monkeypox.
COVID-19 is more contagious and deadly
COVID-19 is now considered one of the most contagious viruses in the world; one of the main reasons it spread as fast as it did.
Medical researchers measure the contagiousness of a virus by determining its basic reproductive number, or R0. This figure measures how many people can be infected by a sick person.
An R0 of 1 means that the average carrier can be expected to infect another person. An R0 below 1 means that the virus becomes extinct on its own and a higher number increases the chance of outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.
For the original version of COVID-19 in 2020, the number was between 2 and 3. This number is likely to more than double for the omicron variant, recent studies show.
Although the R0 of Monkeypox has not yet been determined, it is believed to be much lower than that of COVID, according to the WHO.
Previously, the longest documented chain of infection with Monkeypox was four generations of person-to-person transmission, Health Canada notes, suggesting it has “limited potential to spread the epidemic.”
Smallpox is also less deadly than COVID. Although there is a more serious strain of the virus, Low said most of the reported cases are mild infections.
“It goes away on its own in two or four weeks without any treatment,” he said.
In Africa, between one and 10% of people infected with monkeypox die. Mortality rates have been higher among children.
The WHO says the death rate in recent times has been about three to six percent, but suspicious cases in Montreal and other cases abroad appear to be milder.
With files from Solarina Ho and Associated Press
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