“Monkeypox is unlikely to spread into a pandemic”

PV/VOV interviewed Dr. BS Ngo Thanh Ha, Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases:

Reporter: Dr. BS Ngo Thanh Ha, although Vietnam has not yet recorded monkeypox cases, but with the development of the disease in dozens of countries today, how do you assess the possibility of the disease entering the country? our country?

Dr. BS Ngo Thanh Ha: Currently, monkeypox has broken out in a number of European countries such as the UK, France, and Spain, along with a number of other continents such as Australia and the US. According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox is a zoonotic disease, endemic mainly in Central and West Africa, when people traveling there are unknowingly exposed to the pathogen and become infected. Hey, it’s been around for a long time.

We still call this an emerging disease, we still recommend that people who travel to an endemic area with monkeypox, return home with a high fever, body aches, and after 1 to 3 days, a rash on the body will occur. must contact us immediately to determine if monkeypox is present, and then develop appropriate isolation and treatment strategies.

Monkeypox patient with skin nodules (Patients with monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: AFP/VNA)

Reporter: According to medical documents and assessments from the World Health Organization, is monkeypox dangerous and is this a strain that can spread to become a pandemic like Covid 19, doctor?

Dr. BS Ngo Thanh Ha: There are two strains of monkeypox, a strain of Congo origin with a mortality rate of 10% if infected, and a strain of West African origin of 1%, currently causing disease in the UK and European countries. Africa, the mortality rate is low.

In my opinion, this disease has a low transmissibility of the disease according to the recorded literature, when it comes to contact with a large amount of saliva, the ability to infect. In addition, the mucosa, blood line, and surface contact contain the virus, but the possibility of infection is not high.

Last week, the World Health Organization had to hold an urgent meeting to see if the infectious nature would change, if the infectious nature changed, the epidemic would push to a new height, which is a dangerous disease, but it has not been recorded yet. so it’s very difficult for monkeypox to spread into a pandemic. In order for a pandemic to break out, the rate of spread must be large, but monkeypox does not spread much.

In my opinion, this disease is unlikely to break out into a pandemic. According to the general trend, viruses mutate to adapt to the situation and do everything to maintain its virus strain, so all mutations may occur in the future without knowing it, and currently, the mutation has not been recorded. variable.

Reporter: To be able to detect early cases of disease appearing in our country, people need to pay attention to the identification signs of monkeypox, doctor?

Dr. BS Ngo Thanh Ha: This disease is also a viral infection at first, like flu-like symptoms, the first 1-3 days of fever, muscle aches, accompanied by fatigue and loss of appetite, after the 3rd day on, the patient appears a muscle rash. body, first on the face, then down to the limbs, the whole body. The rash has a watery appearance, the nature of which causes damage through the reproductive cells of the skin, after the rash disappears, it leaves a scar on the body.

Reporter: In fact, the smallpox vaccine has not been given for quite a long time, the fact that we do not have a vaccine Does prevention make the risk of infection higher, doctor?

Dr. BS Ngo Thanh Ha: Monkeypox is a group of viruses that are relatively similar to human smallpox. According to research in the world, this vaccine is still effective on monkeypox, and can even be used in the treatment of patients infected with monkeypox.

Currently, vaccine reserves are still available, in case the number of recorded cases is increasing, there will be changes in the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health of Vietnam.

Currently, the number of cases has increased but has not yet reached the level of new recommendations, I will closely monitor the disease development and the next recommendations. Stay calm because research shows this disease is not as contagious as other diseases. Airborne transmission is also possible, but very limited.

Reporter: Thank you Dr.BS Ngo Thanh Ha.