What You Should Know About the Monkeypox Outbreak
As we continue to grapple with COVID-19, the World Health Organization and other public health authorities around the globe are closely monitoring an unusual international outbreak of another infectious disease. Monkeypox – soon to be renamed by the WHO – is caused by a member of the same family of viruses that cause smallpox. It typically causes fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a skin rash that can be painful and lead to scarring.
For decades, monkeypox has been uncommon beyond a handful of countries in western and central Africa. Now, over the past two months, more than 3,000 cases have been diagnosed in 50 countries, including in the United States and others where it doesn’t typically occur. While, in Africa, approximately 1% to 10% die of the infection, there have apparently been no fatalities to date in the current outbreak outside Africa, and symptoms are often relatively mild.
How Worried Should We Be?
A rapid increase in infectious disease cases is always troubling, but it’s important to put this monkeypox outbreak into context. On June 25, after evaluating the latest data, the WHO said it wasn’t considered a public health emergency of international concern. The monkeypox virus is significantly less transmissible than COVID-19, which is spread through the air, and the general public in the U.S. is currently considered at low risk.
That said, we shouldn’t be complacent. We never want a rare disease to spread unchecked. In the past, cases outside of Africa were linked to travel to one of the countries where monkeypox is endemic or to contact with an infected animal. In this outbreak, cases are emerging that are unrelated to one another, suggesting more widespread person-to-person transmission occurring under the radar. Though less contagious than COVID-19, monkeypox can spread through bodily fluids, large droplets from speaking or sneezing, close skin-to-skin contact, or shared contaminated objects. Most U.S. cases so far have affected men who have sex with men, but the virus can infect anyone.
How the Virus Is Behaving
One challenge during this outbreak is that the monkeypox disease is presenting differently than before, making it more difficult to diagnose. The lesions some patients are experiencing have a different appearance than what has been historically associated with monkeypox; and in some patients, the rash, which typically affects much of the body, has been more localized. These kinds of variations increase the likelihood that people can spread it unknowingly.
Responding to Monkeypox
Fortunately, we have tools to support our global response to this outbreak. There are antiviral treatments, and just three years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine against monkeypox and smallpox. Additionally, another vaccine against smallpox has been shown to provide at least partial protection. As we continue to track this outbreak, it will be critical to work toward equitable distribution of these resources among rich and developing countries.
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To contain person-to-person spread of monkeypox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidance for lowering risk of transmission during sex. We will also need to quickly identify cases and report them to public health authorities for contact tracing. Currently, a network of more than 70 laboratories through the CDC is responsible for conducting initial testing when a case is suspected, with a final diagnosis coming from the central lab. As more monkeypox cases emerge, we will need more clinical laboratories involved to speed diagnosis. At Stanford Medicine, we’re proud to be among the first academic medical centers in the country to offer a test for detecting a monkeypox virus infection.
Another important step will be the World Health Organization’s planned name change for the virus – something that the medical community has been petitioning for. Not only is the name misleading, as rodents are often the primary hosts for the virus, but it is also discriminatory and stigmatizing — factors that work against public health.
It is unsettling to again see an infectious disease — one we’ve known of for more than half a century — spread more widely around the globe. It is also an indication of the need to pay closer attention to transmissible infectious diseases everywhere in the world – as WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “the world is reminded yet again that health is an interconnected proposition.” Though the broad threat from monkeypox isn’t the same as COVID-19, we’re at a critical time when vigilance from everyone can help keep this virus under control.
These resources provide more information about monkeypox and the current outbreak.
Monkeypox test launched at Stanford Medicine to help combat global outbreak (Stanford Medicine News Center). Stanford Medicine is among the first academic medical centers in the United States to offer testing to its patients and those at nearby medical centers.
Monkeypox Cases Are on the Rise, Particularly in Queer Men. Here’s What It’s Like to Get the Infection (BuzzFeed). The virus is not as contagious or as easy to spread as COVID-19. Symptoms include fever, headaches, muscle aches, backaches, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion. Unfortunately, the potential for stigma towards the LGBTQ+ community is a concern given what occurred during the rise of the HIV/AIDs epidemic in the 1980s.
We Should Have Seen Monkeypox Coming (The Atlantic). Nearly five years ago, the virus made a noticeable jump from Central Africa to Nigeria, with patterns of infection similar to what is being observed today. The world ignored the warning signs, and a global outbreak is now well underway.
OPINION: Media coverage of monkeypox paints it as an African virus. That makes me mad (NPR). Despite the global outbreak of the virus, western media outlets have predominantly used stock photos of a Black person with monkeypox blisters in their reporting. This has prompted a swift outcry from health equity advocates, describing it as an example of how western news bias can be racist and stigmatizing.
Program Director] at Daymar College Nashville, Tn
2ySo you are saying it is a zoster derivative that has the ability to mutate an H1N1 organism triggering shingles responses.
Director & Co-Founder @ DigitalMonozukuri.net
2yThanks for the details but it seems we do not understand the immunity completely since even after third booster shits we see cases of covid ..It must be the same for monkeypox .. Do we know?
Patient Experience Program Manager @ Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley
2ysuper helpful! many thanks
Scientific Advisory Board Member at Biophytis
2yWe should contain the virus and not mitigate the rise in cases. Same flawed approach as with COVID-19.