More than 5300 cases worldwide, at least 500 in France.
The spread of monkeypox is accelerating and worries the World Health Organization, which has again asked countries to do everything to limit contamination.
For honorary professor of infectiology Willy Rozembaum, a figure in the fight against HIV and specialist in infectious diseases, France can go further.
What is the situation in “your” hospital?
WILLY ROZEMBAUM.
In Saint-Louis
(Paris Xe)
, we receive six or seven new cases a day, it is a lot but less than the demand.
We could see more, but we are saturated.
We have quite absurd precautions to take: setting up dedicated circuits, specific treatment rooms, nursing staff almost dressed in spacesuits.
These constraints, we do not have them for chicken pox, which is more contagious than monkeypox
(English name for monkey pox)
!
Today, not all means are used to limit its extension.
It will weigh.
Already, on the individuals who will be infected, but also on the health system, which really does not need this at the moment.
Seized by the ministry, the High Authority for Health tells us that it will give an opinion at the end of the week on the extension of vaccination to people at risk.
What do you think ?
It is necessary, it is obvious!
All people at risk of being exposed to the virus should be able to be vaccinated, if they wish, as in the UK.
The question is rather: how many vaccines are already available, how many are on order and can the company that produces them scale up?
We do not know.
However, this transparency is necessary to organize the strategy.
Today, the system is not sufficiently in place, vaccination deadlines are not always respected.
We risk missing out on future patients.
The question of the vaccination of nursing staff in the departments concerned must also be raised.
Corentin, a 27-year-old patient, tells us about his homophobic cyberbullying.
How to prevent without stigmatizing, when the virus is spreading "mainly" among men who have sex with other men?
It reminds me of the HIV years, when little or little information was given for fear of stigmatizing!
For the health authorities, it is clear that there is this constraint, but in public health, we cannot afford to be afraid of words.
It is counter-productive, because the messages do not reach the populations at risk.
However, there is a real information campaign to be carried out, in particular among men who have sex with other men, especially if they have multiple partners.
Saying things clearly helps to limit exposure and to know what to do in case of infection.