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Monkeypox has the potential to become a new sexually transmitted disease

2022-07-24T17:48:25.771Z


Although experts disagree on which path this virus might take, some fear it is spreading at such a rate that it could take hold like gonorrhea, herpes or HIV. In the US, more than 2,800 cases have been recorded.


By Mike Stobbe

Associated Press

The spread of monkeypox in the United States could represent the start of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus, which causes pimple-like bumps, can still be contained before that happens.

Experts disagree on which path this disease might take, but some fear it is spreading at such a rate that it could take hold as a sexually transmitted disease, like gonorrhea, herpes or HIV.

No one is really sure this could happen, with some claiming that tests and vaccines still have the potential to stop the outbreak from spreading.

[The World Health Organization declares monkeypox a global emergency]

So far,

more than 2,800 cases of monkeypox have been reported in the United States

as part of an international outbreak that began two months ago.

Around 99% of infections have been in men who have sex with men, according to health authorities.

Experts aren't sure how fast the virus is spreading, as they have limited information on people who have been diagnosed, and they don't know how many infected could be unknowingly spreading it.

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They also don't know how well vaccines and treatments are working.

One of the challenges is that federal health officials do not have the authority to collect and connect data on who has been infected and who has been vaccinated.

With all these unknowns, predictions about how big the outbreak will be in the United States this summer vary widely,

from 13,000 to perhaps more than 10 times that number.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the government's response is getting stronger every day and vaccine supplies will soon increase.

"I think we still have a chance to contain this," Walensky told The Associated Press.

Where does it come from and how does it spread?

Monkeypox is endemic to parts of Africa, where people

have been infected through rodent or small animal bites

.

It usually does not spread easily from person to person.

But this year more than 15,000 cases were reported in countries that have not historically seen the disease.

In the United States and Europe, the vast majority of infections have been in men who have sex with men, though health officials have stressed that anyone can get the virus.

It spreads primarily through skin-to-skin contact, but it can also be transmitted through bedding used by someone who is infected.

In just a few weeks, the US has recorded more cases of monkeypox than in the entire 20th century.

June 29, 202201:32

Although it has been treated among the population as a sexually transmitted disease, officials have been on the lookout for other types of spread that could expand the outbreak.

Officials said Friday they were aware of two children with monkeypox in the United States and at least eight women.

The symptoms

Symptoms include fever, body aches, chills, fatigue, and lumps in parts of the body.

The disease has been relatively mild in many men, and no one has died in the United States.

But people can be contagious for weeks, and

the lesions can be extremely painful.

When monkeypox emerged, there was reason to believe that public health officials could control it.

The visible pimples should have made it easier to identify the infections.

And because the virus spreads through close personal contact, officials thought they could reliably track its spread by interviewing infected people and asking them who they had been intimate with.

But it hasn't turned out to be that easy.

America's response

Since monkeypox is so rare in the United States, many infected men, and their doctors, may have attributed their rashes to some other cause.

Contact tracing was often hampered by infected men who said they did not know the names of everyone they had sex with.

Some reported having multiple sexual interactions with strangers.

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Adding to the complexity, local health departments, already overwhelmed by COVID-19 and many other illnesses, have now also had to find the resources to do smallpox contact tracing.

Although there are reasons to be optimistic: the Government has a vaccine.

The two-dose treatment called Jynneos was licensed in the country in 2019 and was recommended last year as a tool against monkeypox.

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June 23, 202200:34

When the outbreak was first identified in May,

US officials only had about 2,000 doses on hand

.

The government distributed them, but limited the injections to people who were identified through public health investigations as recently exposed to the virus.

Late last month, as more doses became available, the CDC began recommending that injections be offered to those who realized on their own that they might have been infected.

Demand has outpaced supply, as clinics in some cities are quickly running out of vaccine doses and health officials across the country say they don't have enough.

That is changing, Walensky said.

As of this week, the government has distributed more than 191,000 doses and has 160,000 more ready to ship.

Up to 780,000 doses will be available starting next week.

Once current demand is met, the Government will look to expand vaccination efforts.

More tests available

Testing has also been expanded.

More than 70,000 people can get tested each week, far more than current demand, Walensky said.

The government has also embarked on a campaign to educate doctors and gay and bisexual men about the disease, he added.

Donal Bisanzio, a researcher at RTI International, believes US health officials will be able to contain the outbreak before it becomes endemic.

But he also said that will not be the end.

New bursts of cases are likely to emerge as Americans become infected with people from other countries where monkeypox continues to circulate.

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Walensky agrees that such a scenario is likely.

"If it's not contained worldwide, we're always at risk of having outbreaks" from travelers, he said.

Shawn Kiernan of the Fairfax County Health Department in Virginia said the outbreak so far is concentrated in one group of people: men who have sex with men.

The spread of the virus to heterosexual people would be a "tipping point" that may occur before it is widely recognized, said Kiernan, chief of the department's communicable disease section.

Spreading it to heterosexual people is only a matter of time, said Dr. Edward Hook III, an emeritus professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

If monkeypox becomes an endemic sexually transmitted disease, it

will be another challenge for health departments and doctors

already struggling to keep up with existing ones.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-07-24

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