While the Middlesex Health Center in London (MLHU) announced the first case of monkeypox in the region on Monday, an expert and local consultant on infectious diseases aims to calm the nerves of residents, saying the disease “is much less contagious from COVID-19. ”
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MLHU staff members found that the person diagnosed with monkeypox had no close contacts that required post-exposure action to prevent infection or further public health surveillance.
“Although we are reporting this new local case of monkeypox, the risk to the community remains very low,” said Dr. Alex Summer, chief medical officer at MLHU.
Summers could not “go into detail” about the case in the region, but MLHU believes it is about travel, not transmission.
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Monkeypox is a viral, endemic disease that is usually transmitted from animals to humans.
“It can be spread to humans through direct contact with body fluids or lesions of infected people or animals, as well as from contaminated clothing or bedding and through respiratory droplets after prolonged exposure to an infected person,” the MLHU press release said.
The symptoms of monkeypox are similar, but less severe than smallpox, which can include fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, and lethargy, followed by the development of a rash called measles lesions. The rash may appear on the face and appear a few days after the onset of symptoms with the possibility of spreading to other parts of the body.
According to Dr. Sameer Elsayed, an infectious disease physician and professor at Western University, monkeypox is linked to a group of closely related viruses that include smallpox, cowpox and camel measles.
“The monkeypox virus was first discovered in 1958 as the cause of a non-fatal, smallpox-like skin disease of captured monkeys at a research center in Denmark. “They used these monkeys to make polio vaccines,” Elsayed said.
“However, a recent study showed that monkeypox existed even before the 20th century.
Skin samples collected from about 1,000 surviving rodents that lived before the 1900s have been found with traces of monkeypox virus DNA. This study was conducted in museums, one in New York and the other in Central Africa.
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As a result of these findings, Elsayed said the name monkeypox was wrong – incorrect or incorrect use of a name or term – because “African terrestrial rodents (rats and squirrels) serve as a natural reservoir for the virus, while monkeys and other primates are considered that they were accidentally infected. “
The first case of a person infected with monkeypox was in a nine-month-old baby in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1970s, after smallpox vaccination programs began to disappear and monkeypox cases began to appear in Africa.
Read more: Canadian leads WHO fight against monkeypox
Although there is no specific treatment for monkeypox infection, antiviral drugs and previous smallpox vaccination have helped provide cross-protection, according to the MLHU.
There are two strains of the monkeypox virus, Elsayed said, that have been described in Africa: a West African strain and a Central African strain. Mortality per strain in West Africa is approximately 3.6%, while mortality per strain in Central Africa is about 10.6%.
“However, these percentages are based on research conducted in Africa between the 1970s and 1990s and may not be comparable to what would be expected for accidental infections observed in people living in developed countries.” said Elsayed.
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo has had the “largest share of cases”, according to Elsayed, especially in children from constant contact and handling of animals that are carriers of the disease.
But human monkeypox infection is not new to Europe and North America.
In 2003, an outbreak of infections involving more than 80 children and young adults broke out in several Midwestern states in the United States following the acquisition of exotic domestic prairie dogs that became ill after contact with African rodents during transportation and import.
However, there were no human deaths, Elsayed said, adding that three children had brain inflammation or encephalitis but eventually recovered.
“Between 2018 and 2021, several travel-related cases of monkeypox infection were reported among visitors to Nigeria who returned to the United Kingdom, Israel, Singapore and the United States without any reported deaths,” Elsayed said.
All recent infections, including those identified in the London area, are due to the West African strain or treasure, which appears to cause milder symptoms than the Central African treasure.
However, Elsayed said it could be clinically difficult to distinguish the two strains of monkeypox.
“Once the virus has spread from the area of inoculation or entry, it has spread throughout the body and will eventually reach the skin and may go elsewhere,” Elsayed said. “So it can go to the eye, it can go to the liver, it will rarely go to the brain as a cause of inflammation, but usually the target will be the skin, the same for both strains.
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Elsayed added that he was not surprised to hear about the first reported case of monkeypox in the London area.
Elsayed said people are now more mobile, not only internationally but also in the countryside.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, people were not really mobile at the time. Now people feel a little freer and maybe there are more interpersonal contacts and reunions after a two-year break. I guess from activities and crowded events, things can spread quite easily from person to person when dealing with an infection.
But Elsayed said monkeypox is not as contagious as COVID-19.
“The West African variant of monkeypox is 100 times less contagious than the Omicron variant of COVID-19,” Elsayed said.
Unlike COVID-19, he said there was no evidence that the monkeypox virus was transmitted by airborne droplets.
Infected animal bites and the consumption of infected animal meat are common ways of infection in Africa, although “physical contact remains the most common mode of transmission,” according to Elsayed.
“You need 10 people with monkeypox to transmit the virus to one person,” said Elsayed, “against Omicron, where you have one person who infects 10 people.”
Elsayed believes many people fear the seemingly constant panic and stress caused by two years of anxiety over the COVID-19 pandemic. “But monkeypox is a different virus.”
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“It has a different mode of transmission and many people over the age of 50 have been vaccinated against smallpox,” Elsayde said.
“As long as these people have an intact immune system, no other serious health problems, they will have some degree of protection against monkeypox, with 85 percent cross-protection overall with smallpox vaccines.
According to his study, monkeypox infects people over the age of 50 with more than 1,000 cases reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo each year.
No deaths have occurred in any case reported outside Africa.
However, the recommendations for controlling infections are in line with those related to COVID-19, Elsayed said.
Read more: Monkeypox and travel: Here’s what Canadians need to know
“People who are infected with monkeypox should wear surgical masks, and skin lesions should be covered until they heal,” Elsayed said. “Items for personal use such as towels and sheets should not be shared.”
Frequently touched surfaces should also be disinfected regularly, and social distancing should be practiced with members of the household and other members of the household until the disease is removed.
“People without a smallpox vaccine are between seven and 12 percent more likely to become infected, compared to three percent or less for out-of-home contact,” Elsayed said.
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He doubts that “there will be good reason to block near COVID-19. We are raising this virus more and more now because we are looking for it. So I just can’t see it [lockdown] it happens and if it does, I would question it.
“I personally don’t worry about monkeypox any more than I do about other things that affect public health, such as mental health, education, alcoholism and cigarette smoking,” Elsayed said. “They are more important, in my opinion, in dealing with public health issues.”
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