The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared monkeypox a global public health emergency. The current outbreak, first detected in Europe in late April, has already reached 75 countries and killed 5 people.
The United States has the highest number of infections, with over 3,500 of the 17,000 diagnoses worldwide. New York City, with over a thousand reported cases, is at the epicenter of the outbreak in the country.
But what is monkeypox? What are its symptoms?
Monkeypox is a viral disease that transmits from animals to humans. This virus is a member of the Orthopoxvirus family, the same as the human smallpox virus, which has been eradicated among humans for over 40 years.
Typically, monkeypox begins with flu-like symptoms – fever, swollen glands, muscle aches, and headaches. Skin lesions develop a few days later, although in this outbreak, they may appear first.
These lesions often start on the hands and face, but in this outbreak, they have also initially appeared in the mouth and anus. They can cause intense pain and become sites for bacterial infections. It is precisely here that complications can occur. However, in the vast majority of cases, patients are treated on an outpatient basis, and very few hospitalizations have been recorded.
How does transmission occur?
For the disease to be transmitted, a person must have direct contact with the lesions of another infected person. Transmission is also possible through contact with objects contaminated with fluids from the infected person, such as towels or sheets.
Although the outbreak has primarily occurred among men who have sex with men, monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease.
How can I know if I have the disease?
Clinical diagnosis can easily be confused with other conditions. Therefore, the ideal is to undergo a specific laboratory test, the PCR, which detects the virus in skin lesions. This test was previously difficult to access, but due to the outbreak, commercial laboratories here in the United States have recently increased the country’s capacity to more than 70,000 tests per week.
Is there treatment?
An antiviral called tecovirimat, sold under the brand name TPOXX, has been approved to treat human smallpox and is now being used to treat people with monkeypox. However, there are no concrete results regarding its efficacy yet.
Nevertheless, monkeypox tends to be mild, and generally, those infected recover within a few weeks without specific treatment, only with rest, plenty of oral hydration, and symptom control such as fever and pain. Thus, as with most acute viral infections, the immune system is capable of eliminating the virus, and the person is completely cured without any intervention.
Is there a vaccine?
There is a vaccine for human smallpox. However, previous studies have shown that this vaccine may be 85% effective against monkeypox. This is because both viruses belong to the same family and, therefore, there is a degree of cross-protection due to genetic homology between them.
However, human smallpox, as mentioned earlier, was eradicated over 40 years ago. Therefore, the production of the vaccine also ceased. But with the outbreak, the U.S. government immediately funded the manufacturing of new doses. Over a million doses have already been distributed and are available for free to anyone who wants to take them. However, it is worth noting that the lines to receive the vaccine are long in some cities, and access has not been equitable across all regions and populations of the country.