Concerns about monkeypox? “This time I wouldn’t wrap my head around. In fact, we are faced with a virus that does not seem to have the characteristics to set up an epidemic in the human sphere. “To say, at time.news Salute, Massimo Galli, former director of the infectious diseases department of the Sacco hospital in Milan. “We are dealing with a DNA virus, stable compared to the Rna virus, which it resembles that of smallpox but it is a whole other story. And above all, this pathogen did not evolve in our species, and not even in monkeys to tell the truth. As far as we know at the moment: it comes directly from the animal world, creates a number of infections, then limits itself, “says Galli.
Concerns are also alleviated by the fact that, “usually, manifestations appear to be mild in infected people. In the US, when there was an outbreak with 70 cases in 2003, there was not even one death“. Today, he explains,” two strains are known: one from West Africa, probably transmitted by a particular large rat and which was at the origin of the 2003 cases in the United States. The other strain is that of Central Africa, which is likely transmitted through squirrels “, he adds, with a reflection:” Of the millions of animals imported from tropical areas in Europe or North America, as companionship or ‘decoration’, we can to be exemplary who bring us unpleasant little gifts “.
For Galli, in any case, now, compared to isolated cases these days, “the point is to look for the key to the problem, to understand where the virus came from and act accordingly“.