Guangdong Health Online learned from Shenzhen Third People's Hospital that in June 2022, "Zoonoses" published a research paper "The Novel Monkeypox Outbreak: What Should We Know" with Professor Lu Hongzhou, the dean of the hospital, as the corresponding author. and Reflect On?".
While COVID-19 is still a global pandemic, the world is on high alert for an outbreak of a second public health threat, monkeypox. As a close relative of smallpox , monkeypox is a zoonotic disease that was once endemic in Africa. However, since May 2022, a new epidemic has appeared in Europe, which is a non-monkeypox endemic area, and among the cases reported in this region, there is a lack of relevant travel history to the epidemic area. Faced with this unprecedented incident, Lu Hongzhou’s team believes that important knowledge about monkeypox should be popularized to promote global public health prevention and control.
Whether monkeypox can be sexually transmitted is worthy of discussion
The article points out that monkeypox is mainly endemic in central and western Africa, usually close to tropical rainforests, including tree squirrels, Gambian kangaroos, dormouse, and non-human primates in Several animal species have been identified as susceptible to monkeypox virus.
Monkeypox can be transmitted through humans, animals or humans. The main infection routes for humans are as follows:
direct contact with the blood, body fluids or damaged skin and mucous membranes of infected animals; direct contact with the damaged skin of an infected person, contaminated objects or close contact with their respiratory secretions. Vertical transmission from mother to child or close contact during the perinatal period may cause congenital monkeypox.
Human monkeypox cases have been reported in 11 African countries since 1970, and the number of human monkeypox cases has been rising, with the most significant increase seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The median age at presentation increased from 4 years (1970s) to 21 years (2010-2019), possibly related to the cessation of smallpox vaccination. It is worth noting that among the monkeypox cases discovered this time, most of the cases are men who have sex with men, and most of the cases have no relevant travel history to monkeypox endemic areas. The question of whether monkeypox can be transmitted through sexual transmission deserves further exploration.
There is currently no specific medicine
Smallpox vaccine The effect needs to be evaluated
Monkeypox is usually a self-limiting disease (refers to a disease that can control the development of the disease and gradually recover after the disease develops to a certain extent. Generally, In the absence of serious other complications (with or without symptomatic treatment), symptoms may last 2 to 4 weeks. is different from chickenpox . The rash of monkeypox is more concentrated on the face and limbs rather than the trunk. In more than 70% of cases, rash appears on the face, palms, soles of the feet and oral mucosa.
There is currently no specific drug treatment for monkeypox. Symptomatic treatment and optimized nursing care are mainly used to reduce symptoms, control and prevent complications. For severe cases, antiviral drugs can be considered for treatment. There are currently two drugs approved for the treatment of monkeypox: brincidofovir and tecovirimat.
In terms of vaccination, most of the smallpox vaccines currently preserved in many countries around the world are replicating tissue culture vaccines. The protective effect against monkeypox can reach about 85% and can reduce the severity of symptoms. The attenuated smallpox vaccine Jynneos (MVA-BN) approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2019 is a non-replicating monkeypox vaccine and can be used to prevent smallpox and monkeypox in adults. But currently, this vaccine is only recommended for high-risk groups and close contacts, and its effectiveness in blocking and preventing outbreaks needs to be evaluated.
Monkeypox virus is unlikely to become a global pandemic
Professor Lu's team pointed out that the eradication of smallpox and the cessation of vaccination paved the way for monkeypox to gain clinical "advantage".Furthermore, because most cases of monkeypox occur in rural Africa, suspected underreporting may result in the potential threat of this pathogen being underestimated. But monkeypox virus, unlike the new coronavirus, is spread through close contact with body fluids, such as saliva produced by coughing. This means that people with monkeypox are likely to infect far fewer close contacts than COVID-19.
Furthermore, monkeypox is caused by a relatively large DNA virus that is better at detecting and repairing mutations than the RNA virus , which means that it is unlikely that the monkeypox virus suddenly mutated into a virus that spreads easily from person to person, thus Viruses causing global pandemics.
In the paper, Lu Hongzhou's team also emphasized that the current global population generally has low immunity to the pox virus , and the main confirmed cases of this epidemic are men who have sex with men. They should be alert to the increased risk of monkeypox infection caused by combined HIV infection and Severity of disease following infection.
As more and more countries relax prevention and control measures against the new crown epidemic, global travel and trade are gradually recovering. The outbreak of monkeypox brings a warning: In an interconnected world, the risk of disease transmission is also global. problems that need to be faced together.
Editor | Zhou Yanmei Editor | Zhang Xiuli
Source | Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital
Produced by Guangdong Health Online Omni Media Team
