What are the remaining questions about monkeypox?

After an exponential rise in monkeypox cases in recent months, the disease is better understood, but many questions remain critical to understanding the extent to which the epidemic can be contained.

New virus?

monkeypox It has been known for decades in a dozen African countries. Its symptoms include fever and bodily injury.

But the novelty is that this year it has been extended to other continents. Currently, the number of cases exceeds 35,000, and the first deaths from this disease have also been recorded.

Profile of patients with monkeypox also changed. It is mostly adult males who engage in homosexual relationships, unlike what is happening in Africa, where the disease mostly affects children.

This raises the first question: has the virus changed through mutations?

“By examining the genome, we see that there are indeed some genetic differences,” the WHO told AFP this week.

“But we don’t know anything about the significance of these genetic changes, and research is ongoing to establish [eventuales] the implications of these mutations for disease transmission and severity,” he explained.

sexually transmitted?

The researchers did not want to evaluate monkeypox as a sexually transmitted disease (STD), but current infections have been shown to be mainly related to sexual relations.

This conclusion, supported by several studies based on hundreds of cases, undermines the hypothesis of an important role for airborne transmission.

It also calls into question the need to keep patients in quarantine, as is done in a number of countries.

However, the question remains: is the virus transmitted simply by physical contact during intercourse or also through semen?

Transfer to animals?

Initially monkeypox it has been identified as a disease transmitted to humans mainly through animals, mainly rodents and rarely primates.

A new feature is the high level of human-to-human transmission. But it remains to be seen whether people can transmit the disease from monkeypox to animals.

This problem is not anecdotal, as animals can represent a reservoir of infection in which the virus can continue to develop in a potentially dangerous manner.

A case study recently published in The Lancet describes the first human-to-canine infection. But so far this is an isolated case, and according to WHO, the danger is rather that the virus is transmitted by wild animals.

“We are seeing a rapid evolution of the virus as one animal infects another, and the next and the next,” WHO expert Michael Ryan said this week.

Infection without symptoms?

It is still unknown to what extent people who are infected with the virus but do not have symptoms can transmit the disease. monkeypox.

A French study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine documented the presence of the virus in some asymptomatic patients but failed to determine whether they were contagious.

This is an “additional reason” to think about monkeypox “as a public health issue,” says Stuart Isaac, an independent researcher who participated in the study.

Are vaccines effective?

Many countries have started vaccination campaigns. But these vaccines smallpox not specifically designed for monkeypox.

Therefore, the level of its effectiveness remains unclear, although there is no doubt that it provides some level of protection.

However, there are encouraging signs in the UK, where the epidemic appears to be slowing down. British authorities believe that the vaccine “should have a significant impact on the transmission of the virus.”

(According to AFP)

OUR PODCASTS

“Espacio Vital”: Dr. Julio Ruiz, director general of the National Center for Epidemiology, Prevention and Control of Diseases (CDC) of the Ministry of Health, said it is possible that at the same time that the monkeypox outbreak began in Europe, it began in our country. He argued that cases of monkeypox are detected at an early stage and are likely to begin to decline in the coming days. With regard to monkeypox vaccines, he said that Peru had already signed a contract for the purchase of 9,000 doses.