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What you need to know about ‘Monkeypox’
Monkeypox is a rare disease that occurs primarily in remote parts of Central and West Africa, near tropical rain- forests.
The virus can cause a fatal illness in humans and, although it is similar to human smallpox which has been eradicated, it is much milder. The virus is transmitted to people from various wild animals but has limited secondary spread through human-to-human transmission.
Typically, case fatality in the virus outbreaks has been between 1% and 10%, with most deaths occurring in younger age groups. There is no treatment or vaccine available although prior smallpox vaccination was highly effective in preventing it as well.
Monkeypox is a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae.
The virus was first identified in the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1958 during an investigation into a pox-like disease among monkeys. Read also:31yr-old Reporter dies of heart failure after 159 hrs overtime in 30 days
Human monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire) in a 9 year old boy in a region where smallpox had been eliminated in 1968. Since then, the majority of cases have been reported in rural, rain-forest regions of the Congo Basin and western Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is considered to be endemic. In 1996-97, a major outbreak occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the spring of 2003, cases were confirmed in the Midwest of the United States of America, marking the first reported occurrence of the disease outside of the African continent. Most of the patients had had close contact with pet prairie dogs.
In 2005, the outbreak occurred in Unity, Sudan and sporadic cases have been reported from other parts of Africa. In 2009, an outreach campaign among refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo into the Republic of Congo identified and confirmed two cases of the disease. Between August and October 2016, a monkeypox outbreak in the Central African Republic was contained with 26 cases and two deaths. Read also: Army introduces free medical care in Aba
Infection of index cases results from direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or cutaneous or mucosal lesions of infected animals. In Africa human infections have been documented through the handling of infected monkeys, Gambian giant rats and squirrels, with rodents being the major reservoir of the virus. Eating inadequately cooked meat of infected animals is a possible risk factor.
Secondary, or human-to-human, transmission can result from close contact with infected respiratory tract secretions, skin lesions of an infected person or objects recently contaminated by patient fluids or lesion materials. Transmission occurs primarily via droplet respiratory particles usually requiring prolonged face-to-face contact, which puts household members of active cases at greater risk of infection. Transmission can also occur by inoculation or via the placenta (congenital monkeypox). There is no evidence, to date, that person-to-person transmission alone can sustain monkeypox infections in the human population. Read also: 9 top tips for better gut health
Signs and symptoms
The incubation period (interval from infection to onset of symptoms) of the virus is usually from 6 to 16 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.
The symptoms are:
Fever
Headache
Muscle aches
Backache
Swollen lymph nodes
Chills
Exhaustion
Within 1 to 3 days (sometimes longer) after the appearance of fever, the patient develops a rash, often beginning on the face then spreading to other parts of the body.
Lesions progress through the following stages before falling off:
Macules
Papules
Vesicles
Pustules
Scabs
The illness typically lasts for 2−4 weeks. In Africa, monkeypox has been shown to cause death in as many as 1 in 10 persons who contract the disease.
It is usually a self-limited disease with the symptoms lasting from 14 to 21 days. Severe cases occur more commonly among children and are related to the extent of virus exposure, patient health status and severity of complications.
People living in or near the forested areas may have indirect or low-level exposure to infected animals, possibly leading to subclinical (asymptomatic) infection.
The case fatality has varied widely between epidemics but has been less than 10% in documented events, mostly among young children. In general, younger age-groups appear to be more susceptible to monkeypox.
Prevention
Restricting or banning the movement of small African mammals and monkeys may be effective in slowing the expansion of the virus outside Africa.
Captive animals should not be inoculated against smallpox. Instead, potentially infected animals should be isolated from other animals and placed into immediate quarantine. Any animals that might have come into contact with an infected animal should be quarantined, handled with standard precautions and observed for its symptoms for 30 days. Read also: Why I used to masturbate—Majid Michael
Close contact with other patients is the most significant risk factor for the virus infection. In the absence of specific treatment or vaccine, the only way to reduce infection in people is by raising awareness of the risk factors and educating people about the measures they can take to reduce exposure to the virus. Surveillance measures and rapid identification of new cases is critical for outbreak containment.
Samples taken from people and animals with suspected monkeypox virus infection should be handled by trained staff working in suitably equipped laboratories.
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