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Monkeypox: what is it? The virus is particularly dangerous for one group

2022-05-23T07:22:38.094Z


Monkeypox: what is it? The virus is particularly dangerous for one group Created: 05/23/2022, 09:17 By: Juliane Gutmann In Germany, the first case of monkeypox was reported in May 2022. Flu-like symptoms announce the viral infection. One age group in particular is at risk. The most common question related to monkeypox: How dangerous is the viral infection? The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has g


Monkeypox: what is it?

The virus is particularly dangerous for one group

Created: 05/23/2022, 09:17

By: Juliane Gutmann

In Germany, the first case of monkeypox was reported in May 2022.

Flu-like symptoms announce the viral infection.

One age group in particular is at risk.

The most common question related to monkeypox: How dangerous is the viral infection?

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has given the all-clear for the time being.

On the website of the federal government's central institution in the field of disease surveillance and prevention it says: "In contrast to human smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980

, monkeypox is usually much milder

;

most people recover within several weeks.”

According to the RKI, anyone who gets infected with monkeypox usually does not run the risk of developing a dangerous course of the disease.

But there are exceptions.

"

In children under the age of 16

who are infected with the Central African virus variant, a lethality (risk of dying from an illness) of up to 11 percent is observed".

Monkeypox: a virus is behind the infectious disease

Human and monkey pox are caused by viruses:

  • Variola virus (Orthopox variolae) as the cause of smallpox

    : It is a highly contagious virus that has killed more than 300 million people in the last century.

    A third of those infected did not survive the disease, as reported by the news channel n-tv.

    The invention of the smallpox vaccine meant that the causative agent of human smallpox was declared extinct by the World Health Organization in the 1970s.

  • DNA virus from the genus of orthopoxviruses (monkeypox virus, genus orthopoxvirus) triggers monkeypox

    : the orthopoxviruses include a whole range of viruses, including the causative agent of smallpox (orthopox variolae), as the medical journal informs.

    According to the RKI, monkeypox viruses are common in rodents in West and Central Africa.

    Monkeys are so-called "false hosts".

    The monkeypox virus was first discovered in Denmark in 1958, where monkeys were infected.

Transmission of monkeypox: also dangerous for humans?

Monkeypox is a viral infection that, like Covid-19, is one of the zoonoses.

Zoonosis is an infectious disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans and vice versa.

According to the current state of knowledge, the monkeypox pathogen can also jump from person to person.

As the Robert Koch Institute reports,

transmission from person to person is rare, but possible with close contact

.

As the news agency Europa Press reported, citing the Spanish health authorities, the cases that occurred in Madrid in May 2022 are assumed to be infection through liquids.

All eight patients were homosexual men who are doing well under the circumstances, according to the medical journal.

The cases reported in Portugal in May 2022 were also likely

transmission through bodily fluids

because the men involved had sexual contact with people infected with monkeypox, according to the Lusa news agency.

At the Bundeswehr Institute for Microbiology in Munich, the monkeypox virus was unequivocally detected in a patient for the first time in Germany.

(Photograph from May 20, 2022) © Martin Bühler/Bundeswehr/dpa

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What seasonal phenomenon may be responsible for this

Various possible routes of infection according to RKI information:

  • Contact with smallpox, blood, tissue, or faeces of infected animals (primarily various rodents)

  • Processing of meat from diseased animals, consumption of infected animals/animal parts

  • Close (skin) contact with infected people: exchange of bodily fluids, contact with the scab that forms on skin pox, sexual intercourse

  • Droplet infection (when respiratory secretions of a monkeypox patient are inhaled)

Only a few cases of monkeypox infection have been reported outside of Africa, as reported by the editorial network Germany.

Almost exclusively those returning from the affected regions were affected, it is said.

What led to the

occurrence of monkeypox

in many non-African countries in 2022 and even without prior travel to risk areas by some patients is still being discussed.

Symptoms of monkeypox disease

An infection with monkeypox is usually not critical, most are healthy again after several weeks, according to the RKI.

However, early diagnosis is important to avoid transmission to others and to initiate appropriate treatments early on.

According to the RKI, the following symptoms can indicate monkeypox:

  • Fever

  • headache

  • Muscle aches

  • back pain

  • swollen lymph nodes

  • A few days after the onset of fever: pustules on the skin that look like human smallpox (these become crusted over time and then fall off)

Monkeypox: how can I protect myself?

Vaccination possible?

“Due to the similarity of the viruses, vaccines developed to protect against smallpox (variola) also protect against monkeypox.

A smallpox vaccine containing modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) has been approved in the EU.

In the USA and Canada, the approval of this vaccine also extends to vaccination against monkeypox," according to current information from the Robert Koch Institute.

Since human smallpox is considered an extinct disease, there has been no official Stiko vaccination recommendation since 1983 (Stiko: Standing Vaccination Commission in Germany).

According to the RKI, anyone who has previously been vaccinated against smallpox still enjoys

protection against monkeypox disease

.

So now is the best time to

get vaccinated against smallpox

?

There is currently no official vaccination recommendation in Germany.

As the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health informs, the smallpox vaccination is now only used for people who work with vaccine viruses in laboratories.

Treating monkeypox: New drug approved

At the beginning of 2022, the antiviral drug Tecovirimat was approved.

As the Pharmazeutische Zeitung informs, the drug may be used

in adults and children who weigh at least 13 kilograms in the

event of an infection with smallpox, monkeypox or cowpox .

According to the Pharmazeutische Zeitung, it is not known whether and in what quantity Germany will store Tecovirimat.

Until the drug was approved by the EU Commission, the focus was on

symptom-oriented therapy

: Painkillers, for example, are used for severe pain and fever reducers for high fever.

(jg)

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2022-05-23

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