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This image from an electron microscope, provided on Wed. rcoles May 18, 2022 by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), shows mature monkeypox virions, oval in shape (left) and Spherical immature virions (right), obtained from a human skin sample linked to a 2003 outbreak. (Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP)
A leading adviser to the World Health Organization described the unprecedented outbreak of the rare monkeypox in developed countries as a “chance” which could be due to risky sexual contacts at two recent mass parties in Europe.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. David Heymann, a former WHO emergency department director, said the leading theory to explain the spread of the disease is sexual transmission among gay and bisexual men in two festivals celebrated in Spain and Belgium. Monkeypox has not caused large outbreaks in the past outside of Africa, where it is endemic in animals.
“We know that monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is sick. infected, and now it appears that sexual contact has amplified that transmission,” Heymann.
That is a significant change from the usual pattern of transmission of the virus in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals such as primates and wild rodents, and no outbreaks have spread across borders.
The WHO has so far recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in a dozen countries, including Great Britain, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the United States and Australia.
Health authorities in Madrid noted that the Spanish capital has registered 30 confirmed cases so far. The regional councilor for Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, indicated that possible links were being investigated between a recent Pride event in the Canary Islands attended by 80,000 people and a sauna in Madrid.
Heymann presided over Friday an urgent meeting of the committee. WHO adviser on infectious disease threats to assess the epidemic, noting There is no evidence to suggest that the virus may have shed to a more infectious form.
Monkeypox usually causes fever, chills, rash, and lesions on the face or genitals. It can be spread by close contact with an infected person, their clothes, or their sheets, although sexual transmission has not been documented at this time. Most people recover from the illness in a few weeks without needing hospitalization. Vaccines against smallpox, a related disease, are also effective in preventing monkeypox, and antiviral drugs are in development.
The disease can be fatal in about 6% of infections, but no deaths have been reported in the current outbreak.
The WHO said the outbreak is “atypical” and said the fact that cases are being seen in so many different countries suggests the disease may have been circulating undetected for some time. The director of the agency in Europe warned that with the arrival of summer on the continent, massive events, festivals and parties could accelerate its spread.
Other scientists have pointed out that it might be difficult to tell if it was the sex itself. It is either the close contact associated with sex that has fueled the recent monkeypox infections in Europe.
“By its nature, sexual activity involves intimate contact, something one would expect. It led to an increased probability of transmission, regardless of a person’s sexual orientation and regardless of the mode of transmission,” said Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London.
The chief medical adviser to the British Social Security Agency, Dr. Susan Hopkins, said she expected new cases of monkeypox to be identified in the country “every day.”
British authorities have said that “a remarkable proportion” of cases in Britain and Europe are young men with no history of travel to Africa and who are gay, bisexual or have had sex with men. Authorities in Portugal and Spain also said their patients were men who had mostly had sex with men and whose infections were identified when they went to sexual health clinics to seek help for their symptoms. injuries.
Heymann, who is also a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, noted. It is likely that the outbreak is a chance event that could be traced to a specific infection.
“It is quite possible that there was someone who got infected, injuries to the genitals, hands, or elsewhere, and then spread it on the body. others when there was sexual or close physical contact,” Heymann. “And then there were these international events that started the outbreak all over the world, in the United States and other European countries.” that the disease is unlikely to cause widespread contagion.
“This is not COVID,” he said. “We have to stop it, but it doesn’t spread through the air and we have vaccines that protect against it.” He said studies should be done quickly to determine if monkeypox could be spread through asymptomatic people, and he noted. that the population at risk should take precautions to protect themselves.