concern of doctors and patients most at risk – La Rotonde

Visual credit: Polina Tankilevich – Pexels

Article written by Camille Cottais – Journalist

The monkeypox, or monkey pox, epidemic first appeared in Nigeria in early May, before spreading to Europe, then to Canada, the United States and the rest of the world. Where is the epidemic in the country? How is it manifested and is it taken seriously? Does it risk stigmatizing those most at risk, i.e. men who have sex with men (MSM)?

Hugues Loemba is a professor at the University of Ottawa, virologist and family physician affiliated with theMontfort Hospitalas well as the ByWard clinic. He does not hide his concern about this new epidemic: “the disease is gaining momentum, the numbers are only increasing from week to week”, he declares. Indeed, the number of confirmed cases worldwide currently exceeds the 28 000, dont 957 au Canada.

Dr. Loemba specifies that the epistemological situation is different according to the Canadian provinces: Quebec was until recently the most affected province, but Ontario has recently taken the upper hand by exceeding the milestone of 400 confirmed patients. the doctor-researcher, the disease spreads quickly, because it can affect certain animals, in particular rodents, which circulate the virus between regions.

Although the World Health Organization finally issued its highest level of alert for the smallpox epidemic on July 23, Dr. Loemba believes that the organization was slow to do so. “We would have liked much more proactive decisions to curb the spread of this disease,” he laments. Last Thursday, the United States also classified the epidemic as a “public health emergency”, with the country recording more than 7,000 cases on its territory.

A lack of information

Corentin Hennebert, 27, and Thomas Danthieux, 26, both suffered from monkeypox and took to Twitter to share their experience. The two young men say they wanted to speak about this virus because of a lack of information about it. Danthieux thinks that testifying about the disease can allow other people to recognize the symptoms and thus go to be tested.

Hennebert stresses that there are still many gray areas with regard to the virus, and that it is therefore “absolutely necessary to talk about it and inform more [pour] that people feel concerned”. According to him, this virus is not taken seriously enough, hence certain delays that he identifies in the vaccination campaign.

Danthieux identifies a lack of information from the general population, but also from medical personnel. The first doctor he consulted was not informed about smallpox, “she couldn’t tell me more except to read the Internet pages that I had read”, he explains.

What does the disease look like?

Dr. Loemba says the incubation period for smallpox is one to three weeks, with an average of two weeks. The disease begins with general symptoms, which can be reminiscent of a good flu, he continues. Although not everyone has the same symptoms, he points out that these are usually fever, muscle aches, headaches and lymph nodes. Afterwards, patients have a rash, “which usually starts on the face, mostly around the mouth, then descends, often around the genitals and anus.”

For Danthieux, the first symptoms were a large ganglion in the neck and severe fatigue, then fever after three days. He was first diagnosed with angina, only to find his body covered in pimples a few days later, prompting him to get tested for smallpox. “The pimples in my throat swelled after a week, so much so that I could not speak, all under a high fever that did not pass. In all, I was sick for 10 days. “, he testifies.

If you think you have smallpox, Dr. Loemba recommends going to a doctor or health institution right away to confirm the diagnosis with a PCR test. In principle, one must self-isolate as soon as the disease is suspected, and when the diagnosis is confirmed, the isolation lasts for an additional 21 days. The virologist specifies that it is possible to vaccinate post-exposure: preferably within four days following it, which makes it possible to reduce the chances of being contaminated. Vaccination is also possible in the following 4 to 14 days, in an attempt to lessen the severity and duration of the disease.

According to the two young men affected by monkeypox, it is important to repeat that it is not a sexually transmitted disease (STD), since it is not only caught this way. Danthieux thinks that by categorizing it as such, we risk minimizing the other possible means of transmission. Hennebert adds that it could also lead to stigma.

Stigma of the LGBTQ+ community

According to Dr. Loemba, “we are repeating the same mistakes that we made at the beginning of the HIV epidemic”, that is to say that it is a disease affecting only homosexual people and therefore it would not be necessary to pay attention to it. Although the vast majority of smallpox cases currently involve MSM, he points to the existence of cases of women and children.

For Hennebert, it’s like “if we hadn’t changed anything since the dark years of AIDS”. According to him, the population needs a scapegoat: Asian people were so at the start of Covid-19, MSM are becoming so for simian pox, categorized as a “gay disease”.

The doctor and the two recovered patients think that it is still necessary to target people at risk as a priority in prevention and vaccination campaigns: LGBTQ + people, immunocompromised, having had an STD recently, sex workers, but also nursing staff. Dr. Loemba would like Quebec’s vaccination strategy – vaccinate both post-exposure (contact cases) and pre-exposure – to be applied in Ontario, since, according to him, it has borne fruit, succeeding in curbing the epidemic.

Finally, Danthieux encourages everyone to get vaccinated against this serious disease, because, as Dr. Loemba reminds us, it is, unlike Covid-19, an epidemic that we can now contain. , thanks to vaccines and antivirals.

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