Here is hopeful news for all of us who fear another pandemic before we are past the first: Monkeypox will not cause a pandemic of the proportions of Covid-19.
“Nowadays, we don’t see evidence that monkeypox is going to affect as many people as Covid didmainly because it is simply less transmissible,” says Dr. Eyal Leshem, director of the Center for Geographic Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center and clinical associate professor of internal medicine and infectious diseases at Tel Aviv University School of Medicine .
“To become infected with monkeypox, close contact is necessary, unlike in the case of Covid, where airborne infection is not uncommon,” Leshem tells ISRAEL21c.
Even so, monkeypox infections are spreading widelyprompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a global emergency on July 23.
As of August 3, the US Centers for Disease Control had recorded more than 26,000 cases of monkeypox in 87 countries. In the United States, the figure is close to 7,000 confirmed cases.
Though most infections of monkeypox have affected men with male sexual partners“Most professionals think that monkeypox is very likely to spread to other populations and become a major public health problem,” says Dr. Hagai Levine, president of the Israel Association of Public Health Physicians. and professor of epidemiology at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health.
“But it is very difficult to imagine that it reaches the magnitude of Covid“, Add.
Fast answer
Although Israel reported only 160 confirmed cases as of August 4, the response has been swift, as it was when Israel led the world in rolling out Covid vaccines in December 2020.
July 27th, Israel received its first shipment of 5,600 monkeypox vaccinesapproved by the FDA preventively from the age of 18 and in some cases for adults already exposed to the virus.
Priority is being given to HIV-positive men born after 1980 (the year Israel stopped vaccinating children against smallpox, a related and virtually extinct disease) and anyone who has tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection (STI). in 2022.
“Israel is very good at responding quickly to emergencies”Levine says. “Our advantage is that we are small, so we have a good collaboration between the medical community and the different community organizations.”
Levine wrote of Israel’s pioneering use of the “ring” vaccination approach (vaccinating primary and secondary contacts of an infected individual) to stop mumps outbreaks in the early 2000s.
“Since Israel is open to trying new things quickly and we have very good data systems and good connections, we could do a very good job now of identifying the sources of monkeypox and perhaps identify new risk factors or new sources of infections,” he tells ISRAEL21c.
how it spreads
The monkeypox virus – so named because it was first identified in 1958 in research monkeys – has so far been mainly confined to central and western Africa. It mainly affects rodents and other small mammals.
The first time the virus was seen in humans was in 1970 in the Congo. Since then there have been occasional small outbreaks.
Leshem explains that monkeypox and other zoonotic viruses – those that jump from animals to people, such as rabies and Ebola – always pose a threat to humans because “people have close contact with animals.”
The two main reasons for the current monkeypox outbreak, he says, are that people born since 1980 are not vaccinated against smallpox; and that world travel is more frequent.
“When a disease is endemic in one part of the world and people travel there, the disease inevitably travels,” he says.
Symptoms of Monkeypox (fever, blistering rash, swollen lymph nodes) sThey usually go away in a few weeks without treatment.
Some populations, such as people with weakened immune systems and pregnant women, are prone to more severe cases, but monkeypox rarely leads to hospitalization or death.
“The disease is relatively mild, although we must not ignore smallpox, which can leave scars and cause complications such as secondary infections, pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. And we just met the first fatality outside of AfricaLevine says.
“But we don’t have the mortality rates that we had for Covid, and we don’t have the rapid spread.”
Is it an STI?
Despite the disproportionate incidence of monkeypox in men who have sex with men, the Israeli Ministry of Health stresses that “transmission involves any type of direct or intimate contact and is not limited to people with a sexual orientation.” determined sex”.
It is believed that the virus can even spread through infected particles on items like bedding or the towels.
Leshem says that labeling monkeypox as an STI would be a mistake. “I think if we define it that way, we may miss opportunities to prevent transmission that is not through sexual contact.”
Categorizing monkeypox as an STI “could also result in stigmatizing patients and making people reluctant to get tested,” he adds. “Therefore, we must be careful and precise in our definitions.”
Levine suggests changing the name of the virus to something neutral like “newpox” o “Pox 2022” could reduce any stigma, shame or discrimination around the disease it causes.
Take it to the communities
As a public health physician, Levine believes the name “monkeypox” is just one reason so many people around the world aren’t paying close attention to this pandemic.
“We have a huge problem of public confidence in the health system, we have groups that spread misinformation, we have the politicization of health issues. With vaccines in general there are big communication problems,” he says.
“We also see pandemic fatigue. As the risk of monkeypox is lower than that of Covid, people tend to underestimate iteither”.
Levine says that the key to public health policy is working together with communities on health promotion and epidemiological data collection.
“Covid or monkeypox cannot be solved only at the federal level; municipalities must be involved. We need to make it convenient for people to come for diagnosis – even where they spend their free time – and share their information to identify more cases. We have to be where the public is present”.
Israel could be a model for other countries in the use of innovative tools such as social networks and apps for both health promotion and data collection related to monkeypox, says Levine.
“We should work with health promotion professionals to get the right messages across in the right way,” he says.
Levine is disappointed that Israel and most other countries have not used Covid to change the paradigm of public health and invest much more money in personnel and epidemiological research. “We have to do better for monkeypox and for the next pandemic”.
To prevent the spread of monkeypox, Leshem warns that unprotected intimate encounters (heterosexual or homosexual) should not be held and calls for extreme vigilance between health personnel and people with diseases that make them more vulnerable.
“If a person has any symptoms, such as a rash or sore throat and fever, and belongs to a community at risk, you should get tested as soon as possible to avoid infecting others”, he urges.