To ask if you are worried about monkeypox?

[WhenTheNightFalls]

Can't help but feel a little anxious about it all. Aibu?

Not worried but it does look uncomfortable

The latest I read, there are 127 confirmed cases outside of Africa - in UK, Portugal, Spain, US, Canada, Sweden, Italy, France, Belgium, Australia.

I am somewhat concerned because this is not how the virus normally behaves.

www.wfmj.com/story/46538114/monkeypox-spreads-in-west-baffling-african-scientists

It's not covid though, theoretically it should be much easier to do contact tracing because it has a longer incubation period and patients are not usually infectious before symptoms start.

What concerns me the most right now is the conspiracy theories which are already circulating. Half an hour on twitter and I have found people claiming variously that it's caused by the pfizer vaccine, that it's Russian bioterrorism, Chinese bioterrorism, monkey pox has combined with covid, gay plague, engineered by WHO ...

This is quite a good, sensible article

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/05/monkeypox-outbreak-covid-pandemic/629920/

Given that it's spread largely by skin to skin contact, and the strong suggestion is that the UK spread has had a sexual factor, I'm amazed that anyone would want to get that cozy with someone covered with revolting pustules but nowt so queer as folk I suppose.

I also read that it's caused by the AZ vaccine @LangClegsInSpace. Apparently the chimp adenovirus is giving us all monkey pox.

Thirty years protection, I think. It is also one of those that had legit side effects to be concerned about (and no, I don't mean any sort of antivaxx rubbish). The risk/benefit was clear in case of smallpox, yet to be assessed for monkeypox.

What worries me more is that monkeypox clearly had re-emerged like that because there's no collective immunity from the mass smallpox vaccination anymore. I am more concerned about smallpox being weaponised now.

No.
It's very hard to catch, plus there's an effective vaccine people could have if they were worried.

Calm yourself, ffs. They are just reporting it, its NEWS. The only frenzy is in your mind

You can sit down as well.
Monkeypox has a case fatality ratio of 3-6%. Explaining things to people is the very opposite of fear mongering.

Which made the 1978 death of Janet Parker all the more tragic. I don't think they ever found out how she caught it as the lab she worked in was supposed to be secure. I think the scientist running the lab committed suicide.

It was very sad and big news at the time. I think her death was the last recorded death from smallpox in the world not just in England.

I never thought about it at the time but I wonder if she'd had the vaccine.

Also coughs and sneezes spread it .

Ooh, I wonder if the smallpox vaccine that according to my vaccination records I had in 1966 aged 2 will still be effective? Not that I'm volunteering to try to catch it or anything...

I never thought about it at the time but I wonder if she'd had the vaccine.
Smallpox is a really dreadful disease. Unfortunately, the case fatality rate is extremely high in vaccinated people as well, and it does not confer an absolute immunity either. The eradication programme was successful due to the herd immunity slowing and preventing further spread, not by granting absolute invincibility to the vaccinated. So, unfortunately, there's no guarantee that she would have been saved if vaccinated (I actually assume she was, due to workplace hazards).

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states: “Human-to-human transmission is thought to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required.”

Read more: www.newscientist.com/article/2321212-could-monkeypox-become-a-pandemic-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/#ixzz7TqLq64Ye

I’m NHS too and slightly worried but hoping my fear is an over reaction after the hideous 2years we’ve had in the NHS.

I remember in February 2020 discussing C19 at work and not being too concerned, who knew what would be to come ☹️

I read a good book recently about the 1978 smallpox outbreak in Birmingham

www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Days-Smallpox-Tragedy-Birmingham-ebook/dp/B07C24G6Y8/

There was a previous outbreak from the same lab in 1966 and a lab photographer was the most likely first case that time too. Fortunately the 1966 outbreak was a mild strain, IIRC there were no deaths.

Before it was eradicated there were periodic small outbreaks of smallpox which were dealt with through intensive contact tracing and isolation as well as local booster vaccine programmes.

Yes she probably would have been given her working in a lab. Horrible way to go down in history.

This study (about 2009) comissioned by the US govt seems more hopeful that the smallpox vaccine is longer lasting.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610468/

I’d not heard of it before this thread, but having now googled, all of the stories in the media seem to stress that the risk of a large outbreak is very low.

The media has always reported on outbreaks of unusual diseases, I think the only difference now is that everyone is, understandably, a bit on-edge due to Covid.

Ah good, haven't seen this one! I mainly read some assessments on threats like biowarfare and bioterrorism, and experts tend to assume it is around 30 years or so for significant protection.

What I've heard or read so far. Interest observer only,not medically trained in any way.

Prolonged to skin to skin contact quickest way of catching, or contact with infected bodily fluids, but also airborne and by fomite. According to the medical expert on R4 / a world service.

It has a long incubation period up to 21 days and so I think but am not certain that the host potentially could be infectious before the ghastly pustules appear.

It appears to be disproportionately affecting gay men, but that could change quickly. It's spreading rapidly.

It's fatal between 1 and 10 per cent of cases in Africa. This strain has the lower mortality rate but still that's surely rather high. And the scarring is awful.

I agree up to a point that, because of Covid, this sort of story grabs more headlines than it otherwise might, but that's no reason to dismiss the whole thing out of hand.

However it does seem that smallpox vaccine is largely effective. So I am somewhat alarmed but not overly worried. Not yet anyway.

It's sexually transmitted I heard, so no I'm not bothered

I am not unduly alarmed, but it is on my radar of things to follow. It does look like the transmission occurs reasonably easy in the modern environment - unlikely that all these unrelated people from multiple countries were all rubbing each other for a long time, or exchanging biological fluids.

That's one of the routes of transmission, not the only one.

unlikely that all these unrelated people from multiple countries were all rubbing each other for a long time, or exchanging biological fluids.

The outbreak in Spain appears to be centred around a men's sauna. Most of the case clusters are in big cities which will have similar venues. Add in some international travel now things are open again and the weather is nice ... it's really not that unlikely.

But from what I have read it's never been classified as an STI, it just needs close, prolonged contact.

I'm 50 and I only had it because of travel so I suspect not. Maybe the over 55s have?