A new viral disease has been causing a stir since mid-May: monkeypox! The virus has now been detected in a dog. Anything to worry about?
Paris – A new viral disease has been causing a stir since mid-May: the monkey pox! Even if the virus does not seem to be as contagious and deadly as that Corona virusso the showed World Health Organization (WHO) alarmed. Now the virus has been detected for the first time in a dog proven. Anything to worry about?
An Italian greyhound was the first dog (proven to) contract the monkeypox virus. (symbol photo) © 123RF/ccernoch
It only took a few days for the first case of monkeypox to appear in Germany. At the beginning of July it was already more than a thousand cases. Finally, a few days ago, for the first time, a infection in a child (4) proven.
Still not a cause for concern for many people. That could change now – after all, many dog owners adore their four-legged friends. The first case in which masters infected their dog was recently reported in Paris.
Monkeypox is a so-called zoonosis – the disease can Tier be transmitted to humans and also from humans to animals!
In science magazine The Lancet reported researcher at the Sorbonne Université in Paris reported a case in which an Italian greyhound dog had contracted the virus. It had not previously been clear whether monkeypox posed any danger to domestic animals at all.
The dog’s owners were admitted to Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in mid-June. They are in an open, homosexual relationship and both had contracted the monkeypox virus.
Patients reported their four-year-old dog sleeping in bed with them – even after they had already developed symptoms! Twelve days after them, the fur nose had finally developed symptoms, including pustules on the stomach and an ulcer on the anus.
The dog tested positive for the virus. ‘To the best of our knowledge, the mode of onset of symptoms in both patients and subsequently in their dog suggests human-to-canine transmission of monkeypox virus,’ the scientists wrote.
So caution is advised. The virus could spread much faster among animals than among humans. “Infected people should not take care of exposed pets,” they advise Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.