Monkeypox?

[MonkeypoxThread]

Apologies if there is already a thread about this - the search function is useless atm! I will get this deleted if it's a duplication.

Just interested to read MNers views on this as I don't know what to make of the news reports, and I know there are very knowledgable MNers. I think it's hard for people with no knowledge of things like this, to gauge the "significance" of these cases from the news.

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "meh, whatever, fuck it" and 10 being "PANIC MODE ENABLED" I'm normally about a 3. Is that about right?

So many people confidently stating it's an STI!

But Monkeypox is not considered to be a sexually transmitted infection. It can spread through close personal or sexual contact where someone touches the lesions of an infected person; it can also be spread through touching clothing, bedding or towels that have been used by someone with monkeypox. It is transferred by contact - close or secondary, and not necessarily intimate - with bodily fluids.

Most importantly, coughs and sneezes are also a mode of transmission.

I am keeping my mask on, anyway. But jaysus, will this ever end.

It’s not an STD.

This will probably be caught by those working in housekeeping who change bedding etc. It’s a mild illness for most, that leaves you disfigured, there’s no vaccine for all is there? I’d love a vaccine against a disfiguring disease.

Those who find it funny, genuine question are you going to be ok if you end up horrifically scarred ?

It is unreasonable to tell people what to do with their own bodies, yes.

I have been with my dh for 17 years and have no desire to have casual sex
But for this summer is supposed to be the first summer things are more or less back to normal regarding foreign travel since covid assuming everything goes ahead as planned people will indulge in casual sex when they are abroad on holiday. ,

@x2boys It’s not an STD. Children get it, sneezing, coughing on others when infected and touching fabrics etc from an infected person is how you catch it.
People didn’t isolate when they had covid, they won’t when they have mp either. It’s mild but disfiguring-lovely!

I know it's not an sti I was replying to a pp who said we should ask people to knock casual sex on the head I'm well aware it can be transmitted various ways including close bodily contact!

Everyone seems to focus on the idea that it’s mild, but for some people it can be quite severe, including pregnant people and their babies, for whom it is often fatal. As a pregnant person I’m very worried, not quite panicked but feeling anxious. The media are saying “a large proportion” are in men having sex with men, but not all…so that means women, children, etc. I wish they would release clearer figures on that.

anonymousSister2022 I know you're worried but you really are extremely unlikely to get it. I know they can't give blow by blow details but the impression I have got is that any women or children who have got it so far are from households where a man had casual sex with other men, as some married men do.
I agree it's scary for pregnant woman and small children but it's honestly not transmissible in the same way as something like covid so exposure remains very unlikely. Try not to worry at this point.

That's the covid legacy for you.

That's not gone away, is worse than monkey pox, and certain (large) sectors of the population cannot rely on it being mild in the same way as the majority do.

They are pretty much derided on MN these days and asked with faux-concern if they should consider treatment for anxiety.

I expect similar for this, as it is a less serious disease - both when you actually have it and the potential sequelae.

Such an asinine comment. No-one has recommended community lockdowns for monkeypox. Nor are they likely to do so, as mass lockdowns would not be effective for this type of virus. Quarantine of an affected/ exposed individual, yes, but not lockdown. You're being goady.

We do, whether you like it or not.

We are a lot more mobile and uninhibited than in the golden past you mentioned, and anything contagious is much more likely to spread.

I think that society in general is going to be far more concerned about a disease which affects children than a disease which affects the elderly.

when considering this, we have to remember that covid morbidity and mortality was greatly influenced by age, so need to compare the rates in children

The case fatality rate for covid in children was and is tiny
”overall child mortality rate of 2 per million (0.0002%) across the whole population.”

(that’s one paper, I’m sure there are other estimates).

www.ncmd.info/news/covid-deaths-children-rare/

That is why (as a country, overall) we weren’t worried about sending children into school.

We now await more data on the morbidity and mortality rates of monkeypox in societies with access to modern healthcare.

and of course to see whether this spreads beyond the current groups it seems to be prevalent in.

I appreciate we’re working with what we’ve got right now on monkeypox morbidity and mortality, but I do think it is misleading to take the whole population fatality rate for covid.

A big zero 0
I've read it's not dangerous, although those spots look gross!!

I agree it's scary for pregnant woman and small children but it's honestly not transmissible in the same way as something like covid so exposure remains very unlikely. Try not to worry at this point.

I agree worrying at this point is counterproductive. If the northern hemisphere was in winter - given monkeypox is droplet transmitted in coughs and sneezes - it would be more concerning.

0 before I read this thread. 5 now as I have small children and live in London where there is a child in the ITU.

And this is how hysteria starts!

And this is how hysteria starts!

What a stupid hysterical post to make yourself.
No one is being hysterical by simply monitoring the situation and being aware of it. I think you would have to be rather stupid not to be at least a little concerned.

Why do people think it's an STI? It's not, it just seems that the outbreak has come from some "parties"

Monkeypox, chickenpox, smallpox are not an STI. They are just transmissible by close contact.

I can't scroll back up and see it, as my app is playing up, but the person who suggested people "knock sex on the head for a bit" - do you mean just gay people, or straight people as well?

This is NOT an STI, as others point out. One of the transmission routes is sexual contact. I feel uncomfortable with this being presented as "the fault of promiscuous gays" when that just isn't the case - it may have just been that an initial cluster was linked to a Patient Zero who has infected more than one person, and it has spread exponentially. I don't like the "gay people shag everyone indiscriminately and it's all their fault" as we are not in the fucking 1980s (and it wasn't acceptable then!).

And a new day dawns and nope, still not feeling it

Nobody at all in Rl has even mentioned it!

Not sexual contact but in general - I (and other CEV people) have experience of the avoid close contact line being pushed...and it's a fucking hard thing to do. The shielding letters advised us to avoid close contact and ideally keep three steps away even from other household members, use the kitchen at different times and not sleep in the same bed if possible (not with a CV case in the house, just normally day to day life for three months!)

It couldn't work in our house anyway as I need personal care and we have more people than bedrooms, or even just rooms in our house, but we did try to minimise contact at first (seems stupid looking back but the letters were terrifying!). I simply couldn't live like that, it's not natural for me and actually was worse for my mental health.

I avoid other people outside the home anyway as I don't really like them but avoiding each other within the home is hard. One of my DCs is a HCP too so it's a greater risk, but at some point you just have to get the fuck on with it. I just think the "avoid close contact" is trotted out in the guidelines but actually really hard to do.

Interested to see if this is the case for other people? A couple of people have mentioned it to me, but in the context of hospital appts so not just day to day chat.

I see in the news, it's behind the Boris Partying stories (bet he is pissed off with that!) but it was the third headline on the BBC this morning.

Just one kid in the U.K. in intensive care?

Well we only had 20 cases at the time, so that IS a concern actually.
Given children are most at risk, I would go as far as to say this is a major worry because so few children - perhaps only this one has been infected, and one is already very seriously ill girlcrush

Well yes if out of twenty cases, one is a child in hospital then that's quite worrying. We won't get to covid numbers with monkey pox but of we did and that was the rate of children being hospitalised then we'd be screwed

May I congratulate the many many news outlets that peddled the STI link to monkey pox....it was/is a great deflection strategy - because now so many people think it is caught with sex, gay sex according some/most newspapers and have moved on to the next news story and are not remotely concerned.

Not realising that this isn't true at all, and you can catch MP just by siting next to an infected person! Respiratory droplets, touch and contaminated surfaces.

Even covid could not be caught by touch or contaminated surfaces so this is worse in fact, but most people seem not to understand that it is NOT an STI!