What is Monkeypox Viral Disease? WHO declares Monkeypox a Global Health emergency + Symptoms

What is Monkeypox

Monkeypox is a viral disease from the same family as smallpox, though its symptoms usually aren’t as serious.

Scientists have known about it since 1958, when it was found in lab monkeys used for research. Monkeypox is most common in Central and West Africa. But in May 2022, health officials began reporting an outbreak of the virus in several regions outside Africa.

Cases of monkeypox

a rare, little-known disease – are being investigated in European countries including the UK, as well as in the US, Canada and Australia.

In the UK there have been more than 2,000 confirmed cases in recent weeks.

Infections are usually mild and the risk to the general population is low, but the UK government has bought stocks of smallpox vaccine to guard against monkeypox.

More than 100,000 additional vaccine doses – bringing the total to nearly 40,000 doses – have been bought to try and stamp out the disease.

2022 Monkeypox Outbreak

As of early June 2022, the CDC had confirmed 35 cases of monkeypox and a related virus in the U.S. and over 1,000 cases worldwide.

An ongoing outbreak of the monkeypox, a viral disease, was confirmed in May 2022, beginning with a cluster of cases found in the United Kingdom. The first confirmed case was traced to an individual with travel links to Nigeria (where the disease is endemic) and was detected on 6 May 2022.

How common is monkeypox?

Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe and experts say chances of infection are low.

It occurs mostly in remote parts of central and west African countries, near tropical rainforests. In those regions, there have been more than 1,200 cases of monkeypox since the start of the year.

W.H.O. Declares Monkeypox Spread a Global Health Emergency

The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency.

“I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Issuing a Public Health Emergency of International Concern enhances coordination and sharing of resources and information among nations. The declaration comes even though the WHO emergency committee considering whether or not to issue the emergency declaration had failed to reach a consensus.

Tedros said the outbreak is spreading rapidly and there is a “clear risk of further international spread.”

The outbreak marked the first time the disease has spread widely outside Central and West Africa. Initial WHO assessments expressed the expectation of the outbreak to be contained, and of low impact to the general population in affected countries. A more recent statement acknowledged that undetected transmission had occurred for some time, and called for urgent action to reduce transmission.

Monkeypox Symptoms

The ongoing global monkeypox outbreak differs in several ways from historical transmission patterns and typical symptoms previously seen in countries in Africa where the virus is endemic, according to the largest case series to date, published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Almost all cases in this outbreak are among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, and most transmission has been associated with sexual activity. However, experts fear that if not promptly managed with testing, vaccination and treatment, the virus could spread beyond this group and may become endemic in more countries.

As aidsmap previously reported, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported the first monkeypox case in the current outbreak on 7 May. As of 18 July, UKHSA has identified 2137 confirmed cases in the UK. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has reported 10,604 cases throughout the European region as of 19 July, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has compiled a total of 15,848 cases worldwide, including 15,605 in countries that have not historically reported monkeypox.

Orkin and a long list of colleagues formed an international collaborative group of clinicians (the SHARE-net Clinical Group) who contributed data on monkeypox cases in 10 European countries, the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Argentina and Israel.

Monkeypox Vaccine

Considerations for Monkeypox Vaccination

• Two vaccines licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are available for preventing monkeypox infection – JYNNEOS (also known as Imvamune or Imvanex) and ACAM2000.
• In the United States, there is currently a limited supply of JYNNEOS, although more is expected in coming weeks and months.
• There is an ample supply of ACAM2000. However, this vaccine should not be used in people who have some health conditions, including a weakened immune system, skin conditions like atopic dermatitis/eczema, or pregnancy.
• No data are available yet on the effectiveness of these vaccines in the current outbreak.
• People are considered fully vaccinated about 2 weeks after their second shot of JYNNEOS and 4 weeks after receiving ACAM2000. However, people who get vaccinated should continue to take steps to protect themselves from infection by avoiding close, skin-to-skin contact, including intimate contact, with someone who has monkeypox.
• To better understand the protective benefits of these vaccines in the current outbreak, CDC will collect data on any side effects and whether the way the person was infected makes any difference in how well the vaccine protects them.