What is happening
The monkeypox outbreak is still growing in the US and other countries. The WHO has declared a public health emergency in response.
why does it matter
Controlling monkeypox is important for public health. Some people with monkeypox may only have a small rash or spots that are mistaken for something else.
What does it mean to you?
Anyone can get monkeypox, but gay and bisexual men are disproportionately affected in the current outbreak. If you have an unexplained rash or spot on your skin or think you may have been exposed, seek medical attention.
The World Health Organization declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday. This is intended to open up more resources and information sharing between countries to slow the spread of a disease that has caused more than 16,000 cases in dozens of countries that do not normally have the disease.
“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, and which meets the criteria of the International Health Regulations,” said WHO director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement. .
“For all these reasons, I have decided that the global outbreak of monkeypox represents a public health emergency of international concern,” Tedros said.
The WHO currently has only two other declared public health emergencies, The New York Times reports: COVID-19 and polio, which was confirmed in the US this week for the first time since 2013.
There have been about 2,900 cases of monkeypox in the US, according to Friday data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some officials say the monkeypox outbreak is increasingly difficult to control and that the number of confirmed cases is likely much lower than the actual number of cases. Limited testing resources and confusion among health care providers about how the disease presents has led to pushback among health officials, with most agreeing that more smallpox testing, vaccines and awareness are needed to curb the sprout
“This should end,” Dr. Eric Cioe-Pena, director of global health at Northwell Health, told Healthline. “If it becomes endemic, it’s a public health failure.”
Monkeypox is a disease caused by an orthopoxvirus that belongs to the same family as the viruses that cause smallpox and cowpox. Monkey pox is endemic in West and Central Africa. Reports of this in the United States have been rare, but not unheard of. (There were two reported cases in 2021 and 47 cases in 2003 during an outbreak linked to companion prairie dogs.)
In a health alert to medical providers in mid-June about the spread of monkeypox in the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that some monkeypox cases could be missed in the tests and that the monkeypox rash could be confused with (or added to) other common infections, such as herpes.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky previously said that current monkeypox infections were causing people to develop spots that looked more like a pimple or blister rather than a more classic rash that spreads, NBC reports. Although no deaths from the outbreak have been reported in the US, it is important for people and their health care providers to spot symptoms early to contain the monkeypox outbreak that is occurring in many countries.
Anyone with close contact with an infection can get monkeypox, but most cases in the current outbreak are being reported in gay and bisexual men. Tedros said Saturday that more information and services should be directed to communities bearing the brunt of the outbreak in ways that “protect the health, human rights and dignity of affected communities.”
“Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus,” he noted.
Here’s what you need to know.
Examples of “pox” or monkeypox skin rashes.
NHS England High Consequence Infectious Diseases Network
What is monkey pox? How serious is it?
Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease, meaning it is spread from animals to humans. It is caused by an orthopoxvirus in the same family as that which causes smallpox, although smallpox is considered clinically more serious than monkeypox.
There are two clades or types of monkeypox virus, according to the WHO: the West African clade and the Congo Basin clade. The West African strain, which has been identified in the recent cases, according to a May 26 WHO filing, has a fatality rate of less than 1 percent. The Congo Basin or Central African clade has a higher mortality rate of up to 10%, according to the WHO.
Monkey pox has caused 72 deaths this year in countries where it is endemic, according to an early June publication by the WHO. No deaths have been reported in the US.
Monkeypox was first discovered in the 1950s in colonies of monkeys being researched, according to the CDC, but it has also been found in squirrels, rats and other animals. The first human case was discovered in 1970.
How to catch monkey pox? Does it compare to COVID?
Monkey pox is spread between people primarily through contact with infectious sores, scabs or body fluids, according to the CDC, but it can also spread through prolonged face-to-face contact through respiratory droplets or touching contaminated clothing or bedding. (Think about the close contact you would have with a sexual partner, the contact you have with strangers at a busy event or club, as well as the close contact you have with a member of your household, with whom you hug, kiss or share furniture. ) Experts are currently investigating whether monkeypox can be transmitted through semen or vaginal fluid.
Anyone can be infected with monkeypox, but many of the cases in the United States recently have been in men who have sex with men, according to the CDC. At least two cases have been detected in children, Walensky told the Washington Post, adding that both are doing well. The investigation into the children’s cases is ongoing, but they are likely related to domestic transmission, the Post reports.
Gay and bisexual communities tend to have a “high awareness and prompt health-seeking behavior regarding their sexual health and that of their communities,” said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director of the ‘WHO for Europe, in a statement. at the end of May, noting that those who applied for early care services should be applauded.
“Close” close contact is a key element in the transmission of monkeypox. This, along with the fact that the virus that causes monkeypox appears to have a slower reproduction rate than the COVID-19 virus, sets it apart from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said at a media conference in June.
“It’s not acting like the flu or COVID or chicken pox or measles, things that spread quickly in an unvaccinated community,” Inglesby said. “It’s acting much more like a disease that requires close contact.”
Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Pathogens and High Consequence Pathology, also suggested that monkeypox behaves differently than COVID. “It’s not a situation where if you walk past someone in a grocery store, they’re going to be at risk of monkeypox,” he said at a May briefing with the CDC.
However, scientists are still learning about monkeypox in the most recent outbreaks, and some experts reject the idea that it is not airborne.
Because many of the recent cases of monkeypox in Europe have caused lesions in the genital region and resemble symptoms of sexually transmitted infections such as herpes, you should get evaluated if you have an unexplained rash on your genital region, Dr. John Brooks, an epidemiologist in the CDC’s HIV/AIDS prevention division, said at a CDC media briefing in May.
What are the symptoms of monkey pox?
The symptoms of monkeypox in humans are similar to (but milder than) smallpox, which the WHO declared eliminated in 1980.
A monkeypox infection usually begins with flu-like symptoms, including fatigue, severe headache, fever, and swollen lymph nodes. Within one to three days of developing a fever, according to the CDC, a rash or sores develop and can be located virtually anywhere on the body, including the hands, genitals, face, chest, and inside the mouth
But wherever they develop, the rash or monkeypox lesions may be flat or raised, filled with clear or yellowish fluid, and will eventually dry out and fall off.
According to the CDC, you can spread monkey pox until the sores heal and a new layer of skin forms. The illness usually lasts between two and four weeks. The incubation period ranges from five to 21 days, according to the CDC.
Notably, some people never experience flu-like symptoms, the CDC says, and you may experience all or only some of the typical symptoms of monkeypox. For safer sex and social gatherings where you may be in close contact with other people’s bodies, the CDC has a fact sheet for practices to consider.
Monkeypox doesn’t have the same ability to infect people as the virus that causes COVID-19, says Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“Monkey pox is not contagious during the incubation period, so it doesn’t have that ability to spread the way certain viruses like influenza or SARS-CoV-2 can,” he said. . Experts are studying whether that will continue to be true in the current outbreak.
Monkey pox lesions progress through a series of stages before scabbing, according to the CDC.
Although traditionally the…