The health authorities are on alert Europe and USA after detection a series of “monkey pox” cases in recent days, mainly in young men.
Experts around the world are watching for more cases because, for the first time, the disease seems to be spreading to people who have not traveled to Africa. They emphasize, however, that the risk to the general population is low.
What is “monkey pox”?
Monkey pox is a virus that comes from wild animals such as rodents and primates and is occasionally transmitted to humans. Most human cases have been in central and western Africa, where the disease is endemic.
The disease was first identified by scientists in 1958, when there were two cases of a “smallpox” disease in laboratory monkeys – hence the name given to “monkey pox”. The first known human infection to be reported was in 1970, in a 9-year-old boy in a remote area of ​​Congo.
What are the symptoms and how are they treated?
Smallpox belongs to the same virus family as smallpox causes milder symptoms.
Most patients show only fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious illness may develop rashes on the face and hands which can spread to other parts of the body.
The incubation period is from about five days to three weeks. Most people recover within about two to four weeks without having to be hospitalized.
The smallpox of monkeys can be fatal to up to one in 10 people and it is believed that is more serious in children.
People who are exposed to the virus often get one of the many smallpox vaccines that have been shown to be effective against monkeypox. Antiviral drugs are also being developed.
On Thursday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control recommended isolating all suspected cases and offering the smallpox vaccine to people at high risk.
How many cases of smallpox have been identified?
The World Health Organization estimates that there are thousands of smallpox infections in about a dozen African countries each year. Most are in the Congo, which reports about 6,000 cases a year, and in Nigeria, with about 3,000 cases a year.
Heterogeneous health monitoring systems mean that many infected people may not be detected, experts say.
Individual cases of smallpox in monkeys are detected occasionally outside Africa, including the US and Britain. Cases are usually associated with travel to Africa the contact with animals from areas where the disease is more common.
In 2003, 47 people in six US states had confirmed or potential cases. They caught the virus from domestic dogs in a meadow housed near small mammals imported from Ghana.
What is the difference between the cases that have been identified recently?
It is the first time that monkey pox has spread to people who have not traveled to Africa.
In Europe, infections have been reported in Britain, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Most cases involve men who have had sex with other men.
Britain’s Health Insurance Service says not all of its cases are linked, suggesting there are multiple transmission chains.
Infections in Portugal were detected in a sexual health clinic, where men sought help for damage to their genitals.
On Wednesday, U.S. officials reported a smallpox case on a man who had recently traveled to Canada, where authorities are investigating possible infections.
Is monkey pox transmitted through sexual contact?
Is possiblebut it is unclear at the moment.
Monkey pox has not been previously documented to have spread through sex, but can be transmitted through close contact with infected people, their body fluids and their clothes or sheets.
Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, said it was still too early to determine how men became infected in the UK.
“By nature, sexual activity involves close contact, which one would expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, regardless of a person’s sexual orientation and regardless of how it is transmitted,” Skinner said.
Francois Balloux of University College London said that for monkeypox, sex was described as the kind of close contact required to transmit the disease.
Cases in the UK “do not necessarily mean a recent change in the route of transmission of the virus,” Balloux said.
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