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?

There have been a couple of big festivals in the past few weeks that attract international visitors - Darklands in Belgium, 4-9 May, this is a gay men's fetish festival, and Gay Pride Maspalomas in Gran Canaria, 5-15 May.

absolutely no fucks given

My friend is actually one of the 20 in the UK that has it and he is feeling fine, so I'm not too concerned at this stage.

I feel this is another way scaremongering we are used to after covid.

covid
war
monkey pox

whatever , let me live my life happy and If I die tomorrow well shit happens

DS went to Pride Maspalomas, he goes to lots of these Pride things, he is also going to Glastonbury, I wonder if he will get through the summer unscathed.

It's being reported that close contacts will be asked to self isolate for 3 weeks and avoid certain people including children under 12…..starting to feel a bit more worried now

Yes there is a child critically ill in hospital at the moment (reports from LBC), so the likelihood of it being only sexually transmitted seem to be decreasing. I'm probably at a 4-5 on the concern scale after reading this news. I hadn't realised it affects children so severely.

I’m a nurse and have some experience with this. Many people are alarmed because the virus is similar to smallpox and no one has immunity to that anymore. Fortunately, monkeypox doesn’t tend to be as fatal (the west African class that is mostly circulating at present, at least). The data we have on monkeypox is from resource-poor countries without very good healthcare so it’s hard to say what treatment and prognosis are like for those affected here, but probably most patients would fare better. Usually children are 90% of cases, with few deaths from the west African clade. However, we know it can be devastating for immunocompromised people, pregnant people (and their foetuses, a very high rate of still birth).

To respond to everyone who says that it is sexually transmitted, please stop, we don’t know that. It is through droplet (coughs and sneezes), touching skin lesions, and contact with inanimate objects that have touched the pox (like bed linen or clothing). It may be transmissible through other bodily fluids (semen) but no testing has been done yet. So yes it is transmitted via very close contact (eg, sex) but not truly an STI at this point.

agree with above poster (forget who now, apologies) that even if a small and contained outbreak (hopefully this is the case!) the isolation requirements will have the NHS on its knees. Remember when it was two weeks for covid, then ten days? For monkeypox it’s 21 days of isolation for contact. Nearly a month, when many units are already struggling massively with staff shortage plus the usual sickness and summer hols. It could be a proper disaster.

I work with adults but was sad to read tonight that there is a paediatric case in ITU in London. Hope the child is alright and the ITU is just a precaution. I myself feel a bit wary but reassured that vaccines are available for pre and post prophylaxis. (Not for me unfortunately as I’m pregnant so quite hoping to avoid it altogether).

It can cause still birth if the mother gets it as it can pass onto the baby. That and the child in intensive care is very worrying.

surely they can just role out the small pox jab for it? I read that that can help.

Yes the jab is likely effective (80% against monkeypox) and can be used as a post exposure prophylaxis. But may also be logistically challenging to vaccinate everyone (especially now post covid when so many people are wary of jabs and there is so much misninformation!)

Problem with the jab is, I believe, it’s a live vaccine so not safe in pregnancy and can have serious risks for immunocompromised people.

Oh no, I didn’t realise it was live. I was pregnant during covid and that was a big enough worry even with the jab. I hope they can stop the spread somehow x

Another fantastic article if you want to learn more about the science

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/monkeypox-101-unanswered-questions?s=w

I'm actually quite scared to be honest

I am actually a bit perturbed about this one

I think the public reaction to a disease which causes painful, visually distressing lesions and scarring will be quite hysterical, for one thing, if it does take hold and become widespread. I'm worried about the fact that this virus tends to be more severe in children. The disruption to education that Covid caused means that if closing schools should become necessary, the government will drag its feet. The NHS is only just functioning as it is, and I'm not sure it can cope with another crisis. I also worry that, however stark the evidence that this is a worse disease than Covid, a sizeable chunk of the population will refuse point blank to consider any infection control measures that curtail their freedoms. It's worrying.

The smallpox jab is one of the riskier ones.

I doubt they would want to roll it out as a mass campaign.

The death rate is about the same as the current rate for covid (mild strain in vaccinated population)

And its never been an STI. Its spread by direct bodily contact. So yes, sexual partners are likely to get it. But that's because they're touching each other, not because they're having sex

Why is everyone blasè about it circulating freely in parts of Africa but it's a big upset now that there are community spread cases in the West?

I read today anyway that it hasnt mutated to a more transmissible form. Its a DNA not an RNA virus so doesn't mutate that readily.
I suspect that it's just coincidence that someone who is keen on saunas/group sex/promiscuity got infected through travel so it got into that particular demographic and is therefore spreading far more readily than would usually be the case. Literally just one of those things. But everyone is hair trigger due to covid.

They are rolling it out. Announcement from ECDC tomorrow

www.ft.com/content/11df80f5-32d5-4bb3-8215-420574f276c4

Ring vaccination not mass vaccination

Why is everyone blasè about it circulating freely in parts of Africa but it's a big upset now that there are community spread cases in the West?

Because now it might affect predominantly white people from first world countries.

My biggest worry about it all is that there will be people who use it as an excuse to be openly racist and/or homophobic.

That's not to say I agree with that being the reason why people are getting upset about it but, let's face it, that's why people are taking notice of it now.

My biggest worry about it all is that there will be people who use it as an excuse to be openly racist and/or homophobic

I've seen that already unfortunately, on both counts.

Can you summarise it for those on the wrong side of the paywall? Please

Just sharing this as it's utterly fascinating bedtime reading.
It's the 36-page report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative's tabletop war game exercise conducted last year, in which they modelled a monkey pox bio-terrorism outbreak in May 2022.

www.nti.org/analysis/articles/strengthening-global-systems-to-prevent-and-respond-to-high-consequence-biological-threats/