First European cases of monkeypox have partially distinct symptoms

The first British monkeypox patients had symptoms different from those normally detected in African countries, where, until the middle of this year, the disease was considered endemic, according to a study published in the scientific journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

In general, high fever was considered an almost systematic symptom of the disease, but among the patients evaluated in the United Kingdom, this symptom was found in just over half, the study notes.

The research, conducted with about 50 patients, is one of the first to characterize the clinical specifics of the current monkeypox epidemic.

Until May of this year, when monkeypox began to spread, the disease was considered endemic in just 10 African countries.

However, in recent months, many cases have been recorded in Europe and the American continent: more than 3,000 according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The UK is one of the first countries where cases have been reported this year. The observations of this study were carried out at the end of May, when only a hundred patients had been diagnosed in the country. Thus, the sample corresponds to more than half of the known patients in the country at that time.

In the cases analyzed in the United Kingdom, the disease manifested itself very differently from what it usually does in Africa in general. Not only because there were fewer cases of fever, but because when the body temperature increased, the duration of the fever was much shorter. In addition, hospitalizations were also much less frequent.

Regarding the typical lesions of the disease, these were mainly concentrated around the genitalia.

In previous cases recorded in Africa, they used to spread to other areas of the body, affecting for example the face and the back of the neck.

For the authors of the study, this particularity suggests that the first British cases were infected by contact during sexual intercourse. This hypothesis — which does not mean that the disease is sexually transmitted — is based on the well-founded idea that the disease can be transmitted by touching a lesion on the skin of another patient.

Most European and American cases have been reported so far in men who have sex with men, but they are not the only ones affected.

The authors of the study consider that their observations indicate that the definition of the disease should be expanded to better detect new cases, for example, by ceasing to insist so much on fever.

However, the fact that there are different symptoms does not mean that the current epidemic is due to a new version of the virus, as other researchers emphasize.

“There is no major genetic modification” in the viruses sequenced in current patients, pulmonologist Hugh Adler told AFP. According to him, perhaps the cases may not have been detected in Africa because they did not have fever or the skin lesions were limited, which would jeopardize comparisons.