Monkey pox: Can cause encephalitis and seizures

Monkey pox can sometimes lead to neurological or psychiatric complications, including encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), confusion and seizures, according to a new British study.

University College London (UCL) and King’s College (King’s) researchers, led by Dr Jonathan Rogers of the UCL Department of Psychiatry’s Institute of Mental Health, who published in the medical journal eClinicalMedicine, carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of all scientific studies to date (19 in total) and data on monkey pox until May 2022, involving a total of 1,502 people from various countries (USA, Britain, Nigeria, Congo, etc.).

In addition to relatively common symptoms such as muscle aches (in at least 50% of patients), fatigue, headaches, anxiety, and depression, 2% to 3% of patients have been found to experience more serious neurological complications. The analysis estimates that 2.7% of monkeypox patients experience at least one seizure, 2.4% confusion and 2% encephalitis.

The researchers stressed the need to further study how much and how monkeypox might affect the brain. In addition, they reported that the disease may carry higher rates of mental health problems than other infectious diseases due to the presence of severe rashes and possibly the accompanying social stigma (given that transmission is mainly through sexual contact).

“We found that serious neurological complications such as encephalitis and seizures, although rare, have occurred in enough cases of monkeypox to warrant concern, so our study highlights the need for further investigation of the issue. There is also considerable evidence that emotional disturbances such as depression and anxiety are relatively common in humans with monkeypox,” said Dr. Rogers.

However, no more recent data (after May of this year) are available to show how common these complications are during the current international outbreak of monkeypox. It is also not yet clear how long the neurological complications last and whether they can last long after the acute phase of the disease. Furthermore, the study involved patients most of whom had been hospitalized, so it is not certain that neurological complications have a similar frequency of 2-3% even in the mildest cases.

Monkey pox primarily causes skin rashes and fever. It can be fatal, but in the current outbreak in Europe and the US cases are usually mild and the fatality rate is well below one death per 1,000 confirmed cases. Although monkeypox has been endemic in Central and West Africa for decades, this year is the first year that the virus that causes it has spread globally.

RES-EMP

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