The health authorities in the United Kingdom have confirmed the registration of cases of the rare monkeypox virus Two new cases discovered Yesterday (Saturday), after the announcement of a case discovered last week of a person coming from Nigeria.
Monkeypox is a rare skin disease that affects a person as a result of a viral infection, and is similar to smallpox, so what do we know about it?
Monkeypox is a subspecies of smallpox, a disease that was eradicated in 1980. It is less transmissible, and causes milder and less lethal symptoms.
* What are the symptoms of monkeypox?
The illness usually lasts for two to four weeks, and symptoms can appear anywhere from five to 21 days after infection.
Symptoms of monkeypox usually begin with a combination of fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, chills, fatigue, and swollen lymph nodes.
Enlarged lymph nodes is what usually helps doctors distinguish monkeypox from chickenpox or chickenpox, according to the World Health Organization.
Once you have a fever, the main feature of monkeypox is a bad skin rash, which tends to develop after one to three days, often starting on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body.
The lesions go through an unsightly maturation process, from flat to raised lesions, then vesicles, then blisters (pus-filled lesions) and finally scales (squamous lesions) before they stop growing.
* Why is it called monkeypox?
Monkeypox virus belongs to the genus Corticoviruses. It was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of smallpox-like disease occurred in lab monkeys kept for research, hence the name.
But monkeys may not be responsible for the outbreak, and the natural reservoir of monkeypox remains unknown, although the World Health Organization says rodents are more likely.
The United Nations health agency says: “In Africa, evidence of monkeypox virus infection has been found in many animals including cord squirrels, tree squirrels, gambian rats, flower rats, and various species of monkeys.”
* Where is monkeypox found?
Monkeypox is primarily caused by outbreaks in the tropical rainforest regions of Central and West Africa and is not commonly seen in Europe.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded the first recorded human case of monkeypox in 1970. Since then, cases have been reported in 11 African countries: Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria and Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.
The first reported outbreak of monkeypox outside Africa was linked to the import of infected mammals in 2003 into the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
More recently, in 2018 and 2019. Travelers from the United Kingdom, one from Israel and one from Singapore, all with a history of travel in Nigeria, were diagnosed with monkeypox after a major outbreak there, according to the European Health Agency. Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
How do you get monkeypox?
You can catch the virus from the bite or scratch of an infected animal, by eating bush meat, direct contact with an infected person, or touching contaminated bedding or clothing.
The virus enters the body through lesions of the skin, respiratory tract or mucous membranes (eyes, nose or mouth).
Human-to-human transmission is thought to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets, which generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact will be required.
The severity of the disease:
In its statement, which discovered two new cases of viral monkeypox yesterday (Saturday), the UK Health and Human Services Authority said that monkeypox “is usually a mild disease that heals on its own, and most people recover within a few weeks.”
“It is important to stress that monkeypox does not spread easily between people and that the overall risk to the general public is very low,” said Dr. Colin Brown, director of the Clinical Agency for Emerging Infections.
Yesterday, Saturday, health authorities said that two new cases of monkeypox had been discovered in England, adding that they were not related to the case discovered a week ago.
And the British Health Security Agency said that the latest two infections were for two people living in the same house, and indicated that it was conducting an investigation to find out how they contracted the virus. One of the injured receives treatment in a specialized infectious disease unit in a hospital, while the other is subject to isolation at home.
* death rate
Although its symptoms are milder than those of smallpox, it has been shown to kill up to 11 percent of infected patients, compared to about 30 percent for smallpox, according to the World Health Organization.
The mortality rate is higher among children and young adults, and immunocompromised individuals are at particular risk of developing serious diseases.
* Treatment and prevention:
There is currently no specific treatment recommended for monkeypox, and it usually clears up on its own.
Smallpox vaccination is believed to be highly effective in preventing monkeypox, but because the eradication of smallpox was declared more than 40 years ago, first-generation smallpox vaccines are no longer available to the general public.