To ask if you are worried about monkeypox?

[WhenTheNightFalls]

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

I'm worried for my DS and other children - the illness can be severe for children, leave scarring etc and the Smallpox vaccine is a live vaccine and the injection site needs to be looked after properly.

I also think that Covid lockdowns maybe have played a part in this - people's immune systems haven't been challenged over the last couple of years and people are making up for lost time socially.

I do think there needs to be more stringent medical screening before people get on flights ... there was a thread on here the other day which was a bit shocking - someone thinking it was OK to take children with an active chickenpox infection on a flight

YANBU given recent experiences and media coverage, but I'm not worried.

In the media for all of last week it stated that this was 'most likely' to be transmitted sexually with very close bodily contact via sexual contact and bodily fluid that all the men infected were gay or bisexual, and even pointing to a gay pride event in the canaries as a possible super spreader event thekeatingfive

A child being in intensive care having caught a the MP in the community lends an entirely different angle, it was buried too on page 15 in the Telegraph with just one line. Why wouldn't it worry people I have to ask? I am now worried and I do't mind saying so.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10839877/Monkeypox-outbreak-Europes-biggest-100-cases-reported.html

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/20/monkeypox-outbreak-doubles-health-authorities-set-announce-11/

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61527835

Dr Claire Dewsnap, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, is worried about the rate the virus is spreading.

She told Sky News that she expects a 'significant' rise in infections next week.

'What worries me the most is there are infections across Europe, so this has already spread,' she said. 'It's already circulating in the general population... It could be really significant numbers over the next two or three weeks.'

Close body contact doesn't mean sexual and doesn't preclude spreading to children. However it makes perfect sense it would spread in somewhere like a sauna.

I'm not sure what's hard to understand about that.

It is extremely rare for an illness which has to be transmitted by close contact, has very visible symptoms, and an available vaccine to take hold. There is a reason why smallpox was the first disease ever eradicated.

@DixonD Monkey pox certainly can have a (comparatively) high mortality rate of around 10%. If you're not familiar with that, then you need to inform yourself further.

Monkey pox certainly can have a (comparatively) high mortality rate of around 10%.

There are two strains. The one being spread at the minute doesn't have a mortality rate of 10%

@sst1234 while I don't disagree that public health is racist, there is no currently licensed vaccine for ebola and a lot of the reason for its epidemiology is cultural. The west for a long time didn't understand why people in Africa weren't just obeying their instructions on how to avoid infection.

(By licensed I mean fully licensed under non fast-track protocols)

thekeating I don't know why you are being so obtuse, this was being sold as virus you can only really contract through sexual intercourse and was touted as such all week last week.

Dr Hopkins '"The community transmission is largely centred in urban areas and we are predominantly seeing it in individuals who self-identify as gay or bisexual, or other men who have sex with men."

I don't know why you are being so obtuse, this was being sold as virus you can only really contract through sexual intercourse

Nope, not true at all. It's not me being obtuse.

Close bodily contact is not the same as sexual intercourse.

Dr Hopkins '"The community transmission is largely centred in urban areas and we are predominantly seeing it in individuals who self-identify as gay or bisexual, or other men who have sex with men."

Note the use of the word predominately.

It really is not being "sold" (you mean described) this way, at all. Every single article says that it can and does spread in other ways, though the main method of transmission in this outbreak is sexual.

Predominantly, not exclusively. If you can't be bothered to read entire articles, maybe at least read your own quotes properly?

It clearly isn't just though sexual contact though, very far from it, as this is now known (and was known all along)

From the WHO update:

"Human-to-human transmission can result from close contact with respiratory secretions, skin lesions of an infected person or recently contaminated objects. Transmission via droplet respiratory particles usually requires prolonged face-to-face contact, which puts health workers, household members and other close contacts of active cases at greater risk. However, the longest documented chain of transmission in a community has risen in recent years from six to nine successive person-to-person infections. This may reflect declining immunity in all communities due to cessation of smallpox vaccination. Transmission can also occur via the placenta from mother to fetus (which can lead to congenital monkeypox) or during close contact during and after birth"

Pregnant women seem to be at additional risk.

It clearly isn't just though sexual contact though, very far from it

Well as no one was saying that apart from you, now we're all clear hmm?

What we are seeing is containment, you can catch Monkeypox from respiratory droplets, see above, so the idea that this is 'predominately' via sexual contact between gay and/or bisexual men is clearly very misleading, and being peddled to contain panic I suspect whilst the government work out what to do.

I know that. But regarding the disease itself, it can have a mortality rate of up to 10%. We are lucky that the current strain is the less deadly one!

I have never said that the current circulating strain is the more deadly one, but it's simply misinformation to deny that this is the upper range of the mortality rate for monkeypox overall.

So we go back to the first question.

I said I was not worried earlier in the thread because I believed as most people did, that it was mainly spread through intense physical contact between two people. See the sexual health clinics and general information about the sexuality of those mostly infected in every paper etc last week.

Now we know for sure there is spread by community transmission via droplets and contaminated items such as towels, bed linens etc etc so I am now concerned, and would go as far as to say very concerned.

You state the strain currently circulating has the lower mortality rate, but we have no way of actually knowing that yet do we, given the early stages of the disease and its spread. Personally I am not feeling too complacent.

I know that. But regarding the disease itself, it can have a mortality rate of up to 10%. We are lucky that the current strain is the less deadly one!

if you're going to reference 'it' with no clarification, most people would assume you're talking about the strain in circulation and all over the media. If you don't want to be misunderstood / seen as ill informed, you'd probably be better off clarifying your point more precisely.

I say that as someone that could not have cared any less about covid.

Monkeypox affects children and unborn children.

Children generally have very close contact all day long, especially younger ones. It is not a massive leap to imagine this is going to be a significant problem by the summer or earlier unless a roll out of vaccines can be launched with the same speed and fluidity as last time.

@TheKeatingFive I think it's reasonable that when referring to the upper range of mortality rates, you can assume the reader will understand you are talking about the disease qua disease. If you are imposing a different reading, that's on you.

@Swayingpalmtrees So it doesn't matter when anyone else dies or is seriously ill? Just children?

Wow.

you can assume the reader will understand you are talking about the disease qua disease

They'll assume you're talking about the disease currently circulating. Not a separate (though biologically related one) that isn't posing any threat to anyone right now.

Plenty of people on both threads have said that