We announced it to you yesterday, a joint study between ten countries was launched by the University of Oxford. She focuses on monkeypox, a disease that is currently spreading across the globe. Dr Maxime Hentzien, infectious disease specialist and scientific manager of the HUG HIV unit research group, sheds some light.
First of all, it should be remembered what is “Monkey Pox” or monkeypox in French. This pathology “appears first with banal symptoms such as words in the throat, explains the doctor. Then a characteristic element arrives: skin lesions, which can first take the form of pimples before becoming pustules”.
Everyone is concerned
Our specialist points out that monkeypox is transmissible via close contact. By this is meant prolonged contact with an infected person, skin to skin or contact “via droplets”. The genitals are often the first affected by these manifestations of the disease. Important point to emphasize: “everyone can be concerned” regardless of their sexual practices. So even if the gay community was the first impacted, no correlation link with homosexual practices exists.
As for the objectives of the current international study, “this is an observational study: we will recruit infected patients in each major participating center and then we will accompany them and closely watch the evolution of their disease. We thus hope to make progress in research,” explains Dr. Maxime Hentzien. Joining forces remains the best way to obtain interesting results, which is why ten countries are participating. “Already four patients have been recruited at the HUG, we may hope for two more soon” adds the infectious disease doctor.