{"id":4279,"date":"2022-06-05T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=4279"},"modified":"2022-05-26T08:07:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T08:07:16","slug":"monkeypox-qa-how-do-you-catch-it-and-what-are-the-risks-an-expert-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/monkeypox-qa-how-do-you-catch-it-and-what-are-the-risks-an-expert-explains\/","title":{"rendered":"Monkeypox Q&A: how do you catch it and what are the risks? An expert explains"},"content":{"rendered":"\nEd Feil<\/a>, University of Bath<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

The latest outbreak of monkeypox has, at the time of writing, reached 17 countries with 110 confirmed cases and a further 205 suspected cases<\/a>. It\u2019s a fast-moving story, so if you need to catch up on the latest, here are answers to some of the most pressing questions. <\/p>\n\n

How is monkeypox spreading?<\/h2>\n\n

The first patient in the current outbreak had returned to the UK from travels to Nigeria<\/a> where monkeypox is endemic. However, cases are now spreading among people who have not travelled to west or central Africa, suggesting local transmission is occurring.<\/p>\n\n

Monkeypox usually spreads by close contact and respiratory droplets. However, sexual transmission (via semen and\/or vaginal fluid) has been posited as an additional possible route. The World Health Organization<\/a> (WHO) says: \u201cStudies are needed to better understand this risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Most cases in the current outbreak have been in youngish men<\/a>, but the virus can spread to anyone. <\/p>\n\n

What are the symptoms?<\/h2>\n\n

Early symptoms are flu-like, such as a fever, headaches, aching muscles and swollen lymph nodes.<\/p>\n\n

Once the fever breaks, a rash can develop, often beginning on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body \u2013 most commonly the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"Monkeypox\n
\n Evolution of monkeypox lesions.<\/span>\n UK government\/Wikimedia<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

How deadly is monkeypox?<\/h2>\n\n

Monkeypox is mostly a mild, self-limiting disease lasting two-to-three weeks. However, in some cases, it can cause death. According to the WHO, the fatality rate \u201cin recent times\u201d has been around 3% to 6%<\/a>. The west African monkeypox virus is considered to be milder than the central African one. <\/p>\n\n

Monkeypox tends to cause more serious disease in people who are immunocompromised \u2013 such as those undergoing chemotherapy \u2013 and children. There have been no deaths from monkeypox in the current worldwide outbreak, but, according to the Daily Telegraph<\/a>, one child in the UK is in intensive care with the disease.<\/p>\n\n

Why is it called monkeypox?<\/h2>\n\n

Monkeypox was first identified in laboratory monkeys (macaques) in Denmark in 1958<\/a>, hence the name. However, monkeys don\u2019t seem to be the natural hosts of the virus. It is more commonly found in rats, mice and squirrels. The first case in humans was seen in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Are cases likely to continue rising?<\/h2>\n\n

Cases are likely to continue to rise significantly<\/a> over the next two-to-three weeks, but this is not another pandemic in the making. Monkeypox doesn\u2019t spread anywhere near as easily as the airborne virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n

Has monkeypox evolved to be more virulent?<\/h2>\n\n

RNA viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, don\u2019t have the ability to check their genetic code for mistakes each time they replicate, so they tend to evolve faster. Monkeypox is a DNA virus, which does have the ability to check itself for genetic mistakes each time it replicates, so it tends to mutate a lot slower. <\/p>\n\n

The first genome sequence<\/a> of the current outbreak (from a patient in Portugal) suggests that the virus is very similar<\/a> to the monkeypox strain that was circulating in 2018 and 2019 in the UK, Singapore and Israel. So it is unlikely that the current outbreak is the result of a mutated virus that is better at spreading.<\/p>\n\n

How is monkeypox diagnosed?<\/h2>\n\n

In the UK, swab samples taken from the patient are sent to a specialist laboratory that handles rare pathogens, where a PCR test is run to confirm monkeypox. The UK Health Security Agency has only one rare and imported pathogens laboratory<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Is there a vaccine for it?<\/h2>\n\n

Vaccines for smallpox, which contain the lab-made vaccinia virus, can protect against monkeypox. However, the vaccine that was used to eradicate smallpox can have severe side-effects, killing around one in a million<\/a> people vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n

The only vaccine specifically approved for monkeypox<\/a>, Imvanex, is made by a company called Bavarian Nordic. It uses a nonreplicating form of vaccinia, which causes fewer side-effects. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency<\/a> in 2019 \u2013 but only for use in people 18 years of age or older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UK health secretary Sajid Javid said that the UK government will be stocking up<\/a> on vaccines that are effective against monkeypox. The UK currently has about 5,000 doses<\/a> of smallpox vaccine, which has an efficacy of around 85% against monkeypox.<\/p>\n\n

Are there drugs to treat it?<\/h2>\n\n

There are no specific drugs to treat monkeypox. However, antivirals such as cidofovir and brincidofovir have been proven to be effective against poxviruses in animals<\/a> and may also be effective against monkeypox infections in humans.\"The<\/p>\n\n

Ed Feil<\/a>, Professor of Microbial Evolution at The Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Feil, University of Bath The latest outbreak of monkeypox has, at the time of writing, reached 17…\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":4280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[543,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-4279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-and-body","8":"tag-monkeypox","9":"tag-the-conversation","10":"cs-entry","11":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4281,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279\/revisions\/4281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}