‘It can hit anyone’: Monkeypox spreads without sexual contact, says infectious disease specialist Leslie Soto.

Infectologist and director of the Medical College of Peru (CMP) Leslie Soto explained on Tuesday that monkeypox spreads without the need for sexual contact and can infect anyone, regardless of age.

“This is a disease that can infect any person, man, woman, child, elderly, regardless of gender and age. This disease is transmitted in two ways: by the respiratory route, it is liquids when talking, through saliva; and skin rashes that a person can have through contact and getting into the eyes, nose and mouth, you can get infected, ”he said in an interview with the program News extension RPP.

Leslie Soto insisted that it was not necessary to have sex to transmit the infection. monkeypoxbut close contact with the saliva or lesions of an infected person.

“When a person has more partners, they have more frequent intimate contact, this contact causes saliva to pass from one person to another and that skin friction can spread. This is the simplest explanation for identifying an infection. in this population,” he said.

What allows more cases of monkeypox?

After the Ministry of Health reported 313 confirmed cases monkeypoxThe infectologist thought that the higher rate of monkeypox in Peru was due to people neglecting health protocols, such as wearing a mask or direct contact with people.

“If I am sending information that saliva can spread, and if I am not wearing a mask, I am neglecting the other, more important side, because, for example, if I kiss another person, I take off my mask to greet him, then the message should be complete,” he explained.

In addition, Leslie Soto argued that low body defenses are necessary for exacerbation due to monkeypox.

“A person with low protection, whether it is HIV without treatment, with chemotherapy, with corticosteroids, with lupus, arthritis, although it is true in a minimal amount, but not in the same function. There are populations of older people, malnourished, who have low protection and need to be protected, and if they get infected, they can have complications,” he said.

OUR PODCASTS

“Espacio Vital”: Dr. Juan Carlos Celis, infectious disease tropologist and head of the department of infectious pathology at the Loreto Regional Hospital, argued that information about monkeypox is not transparent to the public and that there is no clear data on how this happens. he transmits the disease, and this gives way to misinformation and fake news. He added that monkeypox is spreading at such a speed that it cannot be controlled, traces of the epidemic are lost. He also explained that there are two types of smallpox vaccines, but there is no clear information about when they will be available and how they will be distributed to different countries. Therefore, it is impossible to say that vaccines are going to be purchased, he specified.