Monkeypox

But health officials have little clue where people caught the monkeypox virus. And there's concern the virus may be spreading through the community — undetected ...

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Scientists are trying to answer questions about the outbreak of a disease not known to spread easily between humans.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is collaborating with Massachusetts health officials on an investigation into a case of monkeypox, ...

The Massachusetts case is the first case reported this year. A second US case was identified later that year, also involving a traveler from Nigeria. It is usually contracted from a rodent or small mammal, and it does not easily spread from one person to another. Symptoms may include a flu-like illness, lymph-node swelling and a rash on the face and body. What we have seen in the United Kingdom, in Spain and in Europe, has been novel and that gives us cause for concern, but, I think appropriately, people should not be afraid of monkeypox right now." However, healthcare providers should be alert to any rash that has features typical of monkeypox.

Health authorities in North America and Europe have detected dozens of suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox since early May, sparking concern the ...

"We really need to better understand the extent of monkeypox in endemic countries ... to really understand how much is circulating and the risk that it poses for people who are living there, as well as the risk of exportation," infectious disease epidemiologist Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said at a WHO press conference on Tuesday on global health issues. Canada was the latest country to report it was investigating more than a dozen suspected cases of monkeypox, after Spain and Portugal detected more than 40 possible and verified cases. Health authorities in North America and Europe have detected dozens of suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox since early May, sparking concern the disease endemic in parts of Africa is spreading.

On 15 May, four additional laboratory confirmed cases have been reported amongst Sexual Health Services attendees presenting with a vesicular rash illness and ...

Intensive public health measures should continue in the United Kingdom. In addition to the ongoing forward and backward contact tracing and source tracing, case searching, and local rash-illness surveillance should be strengthened in the GBMSM and wider community, as well as in primary and secondary health care settings. However, once monkeypox was suspected, authorities in the United Kingdom promptly initiated appropriate public health measures, including isolation of the cases and extensive forward and backward contact tracing to enable source identification. Health workers and other care givers caring for patients with suspected or confirmed monkeypox should implement standard, contact and droplet infection control precautions. Any illness during travel or upon return from an endemic area should be reported to a health professional, including information about all recent travel and immunization history. Although the West African clade of monkeypox virus infection sometimes leads to severe illness in some individuals, disease is usually self-limiting. In contrast to sporadic cases with travel links to endemic countries (see Disease outbreak news on Monkeypox in the United Kingdom published on 16 May 2022), no source of infection has been confirmed yet. The first case identified (index case) developed a rash on 5 May and was admitted to hospital in London, the United Kingdom on 6 May. On 9 May, the case was transferred to a specialist infectious disease centre for ongoing care. The incubation period of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days. No source of infection has yet been confirmed for either the family or GBMSM clusters. Health authorities in the United Kingdom have established an incident management team to coordinate the extensive contact tracing which is currently underway in health care settings and the community for those who have had contact with the confirmed cases. On 15 May, WHO was notified of four additional laboratory confirmed cases, all identified among GBMSM attending Sexual Health Services and presenting with a vesicular rash. Monkeypox is a sylvatic zoonosis with incidental human infections that usually occur in forested parts of Central and West Africa. It is caused by the monkeypox virus which belongs to the orthopoxvirus family.

Several cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in England since the start of the month, with health authorities unsure of how people contracted it.

Monkeypox does not spread easily between people and the risk to the UK population is low, health authorities have stressed. One case of monkeypox confirmed in the North East on May 16 had no connection with the previous cases and does not have links to a country where the infection is endemic. the coughs or sneezes of a person with the monkeypox rash The risk of catching it in the UK is very low, however, several cases have been confirmed in England this month. Several cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in England since the start of the month. What is monkeypox and why is the UK reporting cases?

TUESDAY, May 17, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Four men in England have been infected with a “rare and unusual” monkeypox virus. Investigators from the U.K. ...

Public health officials consider the risk to the general population to be low. The third person had previously traveled to Nigeria, one of the countries where the virus is endemic in animals. “We are particularly urging men who are gay or bisexual to be aware of any unusual rashes or lesions and to contact a sexual health service without delay.” Three of the men are in London, and one is in Northeast England. A rash similar to that found in chickenpox and smallpox can form on the face and genitals in more severe cases. In those cases, two of the patients lived in the same household.

Infectious disease was first recorded in 1970 but a recent surge in cases has led to the largest outbreak in Europe to date.

But two other clusters of cases have emerged in the UK since, with no link established with that first case. But there have been warnings that countries outside Africa have become too complacent about the virus due to its rarity. When the virus appears outside Africa, it is because someone travelled to an endemic region, became infected, and returned home. And monkeypox is not like Covid, with a high transmission rate.” There are two strains of monkeypox; a Central African strain with a fatality rate of 10.6%, and a West African strain with a much lower mortality rate of between 1-to-3.6%. The latter is the strain identified in the UK. It seems it is mostly spread to humans through interaction with infected animals.

A man in Massachusetts marks the first U.S. case of monkeypox identified this year. Officials in the U.K., Spain and Portugal are also investigating new ...

Monkeypox has been infecting people since 1970, and most of the cases have been concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria. The virus belongs to the family of poxviruses, which also includes smallpox. In Africa, around 1 in 10 people who contract monkeypox die, according to the CDC. Because of its symptoms, monkeypox can sometimes get confused with chickenpox, syphilis or herpes. Patients often develop a rash within one to three days of the fever — usually on their face first, then on other parts of the body, including genitalia. The first of those, reported May 7, was a man who had recently traveled to Nigeria. Portugal, meanwhile, has confirmed five new monkeypox cases and is investigating more than 20 total. Monkeypox is not easily passed from person to person, but there are several ways it can spread.

On Wednesday, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said another two cases had been identified in England - one in London and the other in the South East - with ...

we haven't found any travel links as of yet, which could suggest that they may have picked up the infection in some contact here. But he added: "If we see more cases and it continues to spread then there are plans in place to ensure we have more antiviral agents in place to deal with that. Two days before, the health body revealed four cases of the virus had been detected in addition to three others previously found, with all of those people appearing to have been infected in London.

Seven cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in London and northeastern England, only one of which was linked to travel outside of the country, ...

"If there appears to be unknown chains of transmission, it just puts us on alert to be thinking: Could this be spreading outside the U.K.?" Now, there's reason to believe it is. However, "we are particularly urging men who are gay and bisexual to be aware of any unusual rashes or lesions and to contact a sexual health service without delay," Hopkins said. "Investigations are underway to establish links between the latest 4 cases, who all appear to have been infected in London," the UKHSA statement states. UKHSA worked with the National Health Service (NHS) to notify people who might have been in close contact with the infected person; they identified no additional cases through this investigation. Then, on May 16, the agency announced four more monkeypox cases — three in London and one in Newcastle — that had no known connection to any of the previous cases. Seven cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in London and northeastern England, only one of which was linked to travel outside of the country, health officials said. "Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required" for transmission to occur, the CDC said. This viral spread, if it is occurring, could potentially extend beyond the U.K. and affect people in other countries, U.S. health officials warned on Tuesday (May 17), according to STAT. This concern was validated on Wednesday, when two more European countries announced suspected and confirmed cases of the disease, STAT reported on May 18. Monkeypox is a rare infection caused by a poxvirus that belongs to the same family and genus as the variola virus, which causes smallpox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The infection initially causes symptoms of fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion and swollen lymph nodes; rashes then appear on the face and spread over the body, eventually giving rise to patches of discoloration, blisters, scabs and raised bumps on the skin. So far, common contacts have been identified for two of these four cases. Historically, cases of monkeypox outside of Africa have been linked to international travel or animal imports, according to the CDC. (African rodents and non-human primates can carry the virus.) However, the source of the six non-travel-related infections in the U.K. remains a mystery, and it's unknown whether the newfound cases in Spain and Portugal are related to the U.K. infections, according to STAT. "This is rare and unusual," Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for the UKHSA, said in the statement released Monday (May 16). "UKHSA is rapidly investigating the source of these infections because the evidence suggests that there may be transmission of the monkeypox virus in the community, spread by close contact."

The monkeypox virus causes fever and a bumpy rash and is usually transmitted to people from wild animals.

WHO is working with national authorities to respond quickly & effectively to these outbreaks"- @DrTedros He had recently travelled to Canada. There are two main strains: the Congo strain, which is more severe – with up to 10 percent mortality – and the West African strain, which has a fatality rate of 1 percent of cases. The smallpox vaccine, which also protects against monkeypox, has been phased out. The UK infections have been reported as the West African strain. “Historically, there have been very few cases exported.

Man who recently traveled to Canada has first case in US this year, but officials are preparing for more. microscopic image of monkeypox virus particles.

Last year, Texas and Maryland each reported a case in people who traveled to Nigeria. But “at this point in time, we don’t have any information that links the Massachusetts case to cases in the UK,” said Jennifer McQuiston of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A small number of confirmed or suspected cases have been reported this month in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain.

The cases point to possible sexual transmission of this cousin of smallpox — a previously unknown method of spread for monkeypox.

"And when you do have a outbreak, it's likely to be bigger because less people in the community are protected." And of course, many scientists didn't think SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19, would mutate to become more contagious, but that's exactly what has happened in the past two years. Then in the 1970s, the world was close to eradicating smallpox. "You have primary cases, in which people get monkeypox from an animal, and they may transmit the disease a few generations — but then that's it," she says. And no one spread the disease to another person. In many cases, people don't spread the virus to anyone else. Forty-seven people caught the disease from the prairie dogs. Scientists don't know yet if the rate of transmission has increased in this current outbreak. "This is a novel route of transmission that will have implications for outbreak response and control." There's a monkeypox outbreak in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain and other European countries. In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine for monkeypox, which also protects against smallpox. The version currently in England is milder.

Monkeypox can cause fever, swollen lymph nodes and a rash that looks like chickenpox or syphilis, and while usually mild it has been known to have a ...

It is not clear whether the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) exercised this option over the monkeypox outbreaks or for another reason (countries stockpile smallpox vaccines for defense purposes). It’s also unclear for how long the disease may have been circulating, though WHO’s Van Kerkhove told STAT News it’s “clearly… been going on for a few weeks.” There are also two broad strain of monkeypox, one circulating in West Africa and the other the Congo Basin. The West African strain, which officials believe is involved in the current outbreaks, has a fatality rate of around 1%. The Congo Basin strain has a much higher documented fatality rate, as high as 10%. Beyond that, scientists don’t know the host animal for the virus. While experts believe the pattern of infections indicate the disease spreading in the community, it’s not clear how or if different clusters are connected. Most of the monkeypox cases have been found among gay and bisexual men or men who have sex with men. Cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the U.K., Spain, Portugal and Massachusetts, with more suspected and under investigation. The leader of the WHO’s emerging diseases unit Maria Van Kerkhove told STAT News people should be cautious about fixating on the pattern among men who have sex with men.

That is why outbreaks reported in Britain, Portugal, Spain and the United States have cased alarm among public health experts. The disease, which was first ...

To date, there are nine cases in the UK, with the initial case having returned from travel to Nigeria. Nine cases of monkeypox virus have been identified in the UK, with people warned to be on their guard for risk of spread. Monkeypox cases are usually found in West Africa, and the virus does not often spread elsewhere.

Outbreaks of monkeypox have been detected in North America and Europe. Health Authorities have detected dozens of suspected or confirmed cases since early ...

“We really need to better understand the extent of monkeypox in endemic countries… Estimates of the case-fatality rate in Africa vary from 1% to 15%, with the highest risk of death in young children. Canada was the latest country to report it was investigating more than a dozen suspected cases of the virus, after Spain and Portugal detected more than 40 possible and verified cases.

We'll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Disease control and prevention news every morning. Health officials in the US have detected the ...

It's a virus that is mainly spread by wild animals in parts of west and central Africa, according to the WHO — but human-to-human transmission can also occur, ...

Preston added: “Monkeypox is not recognized as a sexually transmitted disease — that is, something that’s hugely dependent on being spread through sexual contact. “That’s the worrying thing — the epidemiology would suggest there are other unrecognized cases at the moment. “As a whole, we shouldn’t be panicking — this is not a disease that spreads like COVID-19 within the general population,” Mabbott told Fortune. “Monkeypox isn’t very transmissible in humans. “That would suggest there are other contacts forming the connections between those cases,” he explained. “It’s still somewhat of a mystery as to how this is spreading. The West African variety – the strain currently circulating in Europe and the U.S. – has a recorded fatality rate of around 1%, while the Central African strain’s recorded fatality rate is around 10%. He added that it was concerning to see that some of the cases identified in the U.K. had no links to one another. The cases identified in the U.K. have all been the West African strain of the virus, which is thought to be milder than the Central African strain. Two cases of the virus were identified in London a week after the first case was reported — but authorities said the individuals had no connection to the previously confirmed case, and “where and how they acquired their infection remains under investigation.” It’s a virus that is mainly spread by wild animals in parts of west and central Africa, according to the WHO — but human-to-human transmission can also occur, and it is occasionally exported to other parts of the world when an infected person travels. Canada is investigating 13 suspected cases of the disease, with the U.S. patient reported to have recently traveled to the country. The first case associated with the current outbreak was reported in the U.K. on May 7 in a person who had recently traveled to Nigeria, where they are believed to have contracted the disease.

“We are particularly urging men who are gay and bisexual to be aware of any unusual rashes or lesions and to contact a sexual health service without delay if ...

The disease can also be transmitted by touching monkeypox skin blisters or scabs, or getting too close to coughs and sneezes from an infected person. Patients will usually need to stay in a specialist hospital so infection doesn’t spread and general symptoms can be treated. The rash is sometimes confused with chickenpox, because it starts as raised spots which turn into small scabs filled with fluid. But it is possible to spread the disease through touching clothing, bedding, or towels used by someone with the rash. It’s thought to be spread by rodents, such as rats, mice, and squirrels. Monkeypox can be caught from a bite by an infected animal, or by touching its blood, body fluids or fur.

STAT had many questions about monkeypox. Fortunately, Andrea McCollum, an expert at the CDC, had many answers.

It depends on the person and it depends on the extent of the rash. If a patient’s been in bed, then the lesions have exudate and pus and that gets on the bed linens and the virus is in that material. A number of the cases are in men who have sex with men, which raises the question of sexual transmission. But at this point, everything we’re hearing and seeing is consistent with what we know about monkeypox, which is that it requires close contact. We do know that lesions themselves, including the ones that present on the surface of the skin, they’re loaded with virus. It’s only during that healing phase [with monkeypox] when there’s crusting and the skin is regenerating a bit, patients mention itching. But I will remind you that you can have an R-naught of less than one and the agent can still be transmitted person to person. I don’t think we have a really good handle on whether most of it is respiratory or skin-to-skin. We don’t have really good contemporary estimates of R-naught. [R-naught is the figure that estimates how many people an infected person, on average, will infect.] We don’t really have any estimates of R-naught for the West African clade. So far it seems that the cases are being caused by viruses from the West African clade, which triggers milder disease than the other family of viruses, called the Congo Basin clade. Monkeypox causes a flu-like array of symptoms, but also comes with a distinctive rash; one telltale sign is the fact that lesions often appear on the palms of hands. At this point, the cases are mainly being detected by clinics that treat sexually transmitted diseases and are being seen in men who have sex with men.

So far, nine people have been infected with the virus in the UK, all but two in London. The disease is normally sporadic and linked to travel to parts of ...

This isn't another COVID. But the outbreak of monkeypox is unusual. It's not known whether they are linked to what is going on in the UK or whether there have been multiple introductions of the virus from West Africa. It's more likely that prolonged and intimate skin to skin contact is spreading the virus. But it's now clear that the virus is spreading within the UK, and many cases are likely to be going undetected. So far, nine people have been infected with the virus in the UK, all but two in London. The disease is normally sporadic and linked to travel to parts of Africa where it is endemic. Normally the disease is sporadic and linked to travel to parts of Africa where it is endemic.