A prominent adviser to the World Health Organization considered that two parties that witnessed “sexual activity” may have caused the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox in Western countries, at a time when the strategic adviser to the programs of the Health Organization confirmed that the virus “is not a disease that spreads among homosexuals, as some people tried to classify it through Social media”.
The Associated Press quoted, d. David Hayman, who previously headed the emergency department of the World Health Organization, said that the most prominent theory to explain the spread of the disease was sexual transmission between men at two parties held in Spain and Belgium, knowing that monkeypox had not previously caused outbreaks spread outside Africa, where it was an epidemic among the animals.
“We know that monkeypox can spread in close contact with the pests of an infected person, and it appears that some form of sexual contact has increased transmission now,” Heymann added.
Monkeypox is usually transmitted to humans by wild rodents or primates. But it can also be transmitted from one person to another, through direct contact with the rash or mucous membranes of a sick person, as well as through droplets.
Andy Seal, strategic adviser to the World Health Organization’s programs on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted diseases, noted that while it can be caught through sex, monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease.
In this current set of injuries, several cases have been identified among gay men. But this expert stressed that “it is not a disease that spreads among homosexuals, as some people have tried to classify it through social media.”
The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS warned Sunday that racist and homophobic comments sometimes made about monkeypox could “quickly undermine efforts to combat the epidemic.” A major global meeting with all experts from different disciplines is supposed to take place next week to discuss the current outbreak of the disease.
Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, said: “By its nature, sexual contact involves close intimate contact, which one might expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, regardless of one’s sexual orientation and type of transmission.”
Today, Monday, Andrea Amon, director of the European Center for Disease Control, said that “the possibility of further spread of the virus through close contact, for example during sexual activities between individuals with multiple sexual partners, is high.”
The World Health Organization has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in 12 countries, including Britain, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the United States and Australia.
Today, Monday, Denmark announced its first cases, Portugal revised its tally to 37, and Italy recorded a new infection.
Germany has four confirmed cases linked to exposure at “party events… where sexual activity occurred”, in Spain’s Canary Islands and in Berlin, according to a government report to lawmakers obtained by the Associated Press.
Currently, there are “less than 200 confirmed and suspected cases” in those countries where monkeypox is not endemic, according to Maria van Kerkhove, who is tasked with combating COVID-19 and emerging diseases and zoonoses at the World Health Organization.
This outcome is only relevant for countries where monkeypox is unusual. But the World Health Organization expressed confidence in the ability to “stop” transmission of the disease between humans in these “non-endemic” countries during a question-and-answer session on Monday.
“It is a situation that can be controlled, especially in European countries that have entered the disease,” Van Kerkhove said.
She stressed that early detection and isolation of infections is part of the measures recommended by the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, adding that there are currently no serious cases.
This smallpox-like virus, which was eradicated 40 years ago, is endemic to 11 countries in West Africa and Central Africa.
Monkey pox initially causes a high temperature and quickly develops into a rash with scales.
What worries experts is the simultaneous emergence of infections in several countries in people, most of whom had no direct link to the countries where the disease is endemic.
It is not a sexually transmitted disease
According to preliminary analyses, such as a first genome sequence in Portugal, the virus mutant belongs to the West African strain associated with less severe disease than the other monkeypox mutant.
Also, it is not yet known whether the virus has mutated, as Rosamund Lewis, who is responsible for smallpox in the World Health Organization’s emergency program, explained, but the monkeypox virus “tends to be relatively stable.”
In turn, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said Monday that the risk of the rare disease monkeypox spreading among the population on a large scale is “very low” but high in certain groups, in the first assessment of the risk since the unusual appearance of dozens of infections in Europe and North America.
And the Director of the European Health Agency, Andrea Amon, explained that “most of the current cases were accompanied by mild symptoms, and for the general public, the probability of spread is very low,” adding that the possibility of spreading the virus through close contact between people with multiple sexual partners was considered “high.”
According to the European Agency, the virus can cause severe disease among certain groups, such as children, pregnant women and people with immunodeficiency.