Mpox News
Monkeypox (mpox) is coming to the front of the disease news in late 2024
What is Monkeypox?
NHS England says that Monkeypox (Mpox) in the UK is a rare infection with a low risk of bring caught. It can be transferred from one person to another through any close physical contact. So this would mean that you are at risk if you are kissing, cuddling, holding hands, sex, touching clothing bedding or towels of an infected person , or if they cough or sneeze or even face to face talking. In Africa, there have been cases where people were infected by touching animals, or being bitten by them, or eating poorly cooked meat. So a sneeze into a hand which then opens a door might infect the next person to touch the door handle.
Anyone can get Mpox. Currently, most cases have been in gay bi men.
Symptoms
About 5 - 21 days after infection, the first symptoms that start to appear are :
High temp & chills (shivering)
headache, muscle ache, back ache and joint pain
Swollen glands & exhaustion
Also, a rash will appear , often on the face and spreading quickly to other parts of the body. The rash becomes small blisters which means it is sometimes confused with chicken pox. Blisters scab and fall off . Whilst the symptoms remain, patients can still pass Mpox on to others. Up until recent years , the disease is usually mild and patients self isolate at home for a few weeks.
More serious cases usually involve the very old or very young and those people who take medicines that affect their immune system (eg persons with HIV). Contracting Mpox during pregnancy can be dangerous for fetus or newborn .
World Health Organisation (WHO)
The WHO website says that Monkeypox was first discovered in Denmark in 1958 where monkeys kept for research were found to have the disease. First human case was in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970. It has steadily emerged across equatorial Africa and there was a global outbreak in 2022.
There are two main clades of the infection (a clade is a group of organisms which come from a common ancestor) . Clade 2 caused the outbreak in 2022. An offshoot of clade 1 called clade 1b is the cause of most recent concern and on 14 August 2024 it was declared "public health emergency of international concern" PHEIC. All clades are zoonoses (can be transmitted from animal to human). WHO has recorded 15,600 cases of which 537 deaths (3.44%).