Several cases of the viral disease have been discovered in the United States and Europe and health authorities are preparing to stop its spread. The good news: there is an effective vaccine against it
In recent weeks, several cases of monkey pox disease have been identified in Western Europe and North America. The disease was first detected in the UK and in recent days also in Spain, Canada, the United States, Portugal and Sweden. Disease spread in some countries is causing concern in global health bodies due to the fear of a scenario where the virus will start circulating in the population even outside its normal distribution area.
Monkey pox is a viral disease that is prevalent mainly in Central and Western Africa and causes the development of blisters all over the body. The cause of the disease is a virus, which was first identified in monkeys, although they are not its main carrier. Usually when the disease is detected in Western countries, its origin is in Africa. She even jumped to visit Israel in 2018 with a man who had returned from a visit to Nigeria.
Updated list of monkeypox cases:
– Portugal: 14 confirmed, 6 suspected
– UK: 9 confirmed
– Spain: 7 confirmed, up to 40 suspected
– Canada: 13 suspected
– Sweden: 1 confirmed
– USA: 1 confirmed (Massachusetts)Total: 32 confirmed, 59 suspected
— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) May 19, 2022
Monkey pox cases as of the time of publication.
The monkey smallpox virus got its name from an outbreak in 1958, in which it was transmitted to humans from laboratory monkeys at a facility in Copenhagen. Another outbreak, identified in the United States in 2003, also began in animals, with various rodents imported from Africa infecting barking. The barking, large ground squirrels living in North America, have been sold as pets. Their owners became infected directly, through bites and scratches, or as a result of touching the feces while cleaning the cage. The virus infects mammals, including humans. It belongs to the Orthopox family, which also includes bovine chickenpox and the infamous smallpox disease. The virus has two known variants, Central African and West African, and the first usually causes a more serious illness. The virus identified in Europe is of the least aggressive variant.
The virus is transmitted by contact with body fluids, and especially saliva, in large droplets emitted into the air. It penetrates through body openings, mucous tissues, and through wounds – including small wounds in the skin that we are not even aware of. The symptoms of the disease are reminiscent of those of smallpox, which became extinct in the late 1970s. Therefore there have been cases in the past where monkey pox has been mistakenly diagnosed as smallpox.
The virus attacks the cells of the immune system and after a period of incubation of a few days the characteristic blisters appear, and with them high fever, chills, headaches and other inflammatory symptoms. Despite the familial and mechanism similarities between the diseases, monkey pox is considered much less fatal. Although there are findings that indicate a significant mortality rate, which can reach ten percent of the more violent variant in Africa, due to its rarity it is difficult to determine how dangerous it is in countries with advanced medicine. It is probably much less, what is more, this time it is the second, less dangerous variant.
Studies conducted at the end of the last century showed that the smallpox vaccine was also effective against other viruses from the same family, including monkey pox. In fact, the vaccine itself is based on another virus from the same family, which causes humans only a mild illness. In the past it was one of the routine vaccines given to children all over the world. Today, the vaccine is no longer given because it is no longer needed – in Israel, for example, it was stopped about twenty years ago. However, the protection that the vaccine provides from infection fades within a few years, and therefore both the previously vaccinated population and those born after the extinction of smallpox are unprotected. In the UK, people who came in contact with monkey pox patients have already begun to be vaccinated, with the aim of interrupting the chain of infection at the beginning, and have begun to stockpile vaccines for fear of spreading the disease.
Monkey smallpox virus. | Photo: UK HEALTH SECURITY AGENCY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Is there cause for concern?
Currently there is no real reason to worry. The number of patients identified so far is very low – only a few dozen verified patients or people suspected of being infected throughout Europe and North America. It is likely that now, once active monitoring of the disease has begun, more cases will be discovered. According to one hypothesis, the timing of the eruption is related to the resumption of world tourist traffic following the removal of corona restrictions in most countries.
The disease is contagious, with prolonged face-to-face contact with the patient or contact with blisters, body fluids or contaminated surfaces, such as clothing. The symptoms of the disease are very noticeable, and especially the blisters that are characteristic of it, so unlike diseases like the corona, it is easy to identify a person who has become ill and isolate him. However, patients become infected with the onset of mild symptoms, even before the blisters appear, and some patients show no symptoms. The fact that patients were discovered in several countries at the same time may, in the very pessimistic scenario, indicate a change in the virus and improved its ability to pass from person to person, so that there is a risk of human transmission and latent morbidity in the population.
Careful monitoring of the spread of the disease and rapid amputation of infection chains, along with maintaining hygiene, can reduce the risk of the disease spreading. If God forbid the need for broader action arises, there is also an effective and safe vaccine, even if not free of side effects, given in the past with great success to billions of people. When necessary there will be no difficulty in producing and distributing it at all hotspots.
So far many of the patients are young men, some are men who have relationships with men. It is possible that the relatively high incidence of the disease in this particular group is related to the lifestyle of some patients, as the virus may be passed from person to person through intimate or sexual contact, which includes prolonged skin-to-skin contact and saliva exposure. It is worth waiting for further findings, especially given that it is a known virus that comes from a family that has killed millions of people throughout history, but so far has not spread significantly.