Monkeypox is spreading “in an unusual way” in the US and Europe

According to the news agency APpreviously cases of monkey pox has only been reported in people with a clear epidemiological factor, i.e. with links to Central and West Africa. But in the past week, cases have mainly been reported in young men who have not previously traveled to Africa.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been more than 80 confirmed cases worldwide and dozens of other suspected cases. On May 20, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia had new cases; On May 21, the Netherlands continued to report many cases.

The wave in the countries of Europe – America is mild cases, no deaths. Monkeypox usually has an incubation period of 1-3 weeks, onset of illness and then recovery in 2-4 weeks.

“I’m stunned by this. Every day I wake up and there are more countries with cases. This is not the type of contagion that we normally see in West Africa, so maybe something new is happening here. West,” virologist Oyewale Tomori, who previously headed the Nigerian Academy of Sciences and was a member of several WHO advisory boards, told AP.

The hand of a monkeypox patient in Africa – Photo: REUTERS

According to Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, head of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control – where one of the first British patients ever traveled – none of his contacts have shown symptoms of monkeypox.

WHO Europe Regional Director Han Kluge described this outbreak as “atypical” and suggested that the outbreak may have been silent for some time.

On May 20, Britain’s Health Security Agency reported 11 more cases of monkeypox and said “a remarkable proportion” of the patients were young men with no history of travel to Africa and who were homosexual. bisexual, bisexual, or sexually active with men. Similar reports also came from Spain and Portugal.

WHO and UK scientists are still investigating the direction that sexual transmission may be a common route to this wave of epidemics.

WHO predicts more cases of monkeypox will appear. That is also the opinion of Dr. Charlotte Hammer, an expert on emerging diseases from the University of Cambridge – UK.

“It may be that the virus is different now or perhaps our susceptibility to it has changed. Alternatively, it may just be that we have encountered a perfect storm of conditions that have allowed the virus to occur. spread in this way. I think the following scenario is more likely” – The Guardian quoted Dr. Hammer.

Associated Reuters citing WHO infectious disease expert David Heymann, it is possible that monkeypox entered the community as a sexually transmitted disease that increased its ability to spread globally. world.

One factor that may have contributed is that the effect of the smallpox vaccine – which also protects against monkeypox – has decreased.

Smallpox was officially eradicated in 1977, and in 1980, WHO recommended discontinuing smallpox vaccination. Some countries like to maintain it for a few more years and then stop completely, some countries have stopped injecting before like the US. Therefore, in the world, from the generation born about 30-40 years ago, there was no vaccination against smallpox.