“We don’t need to fear a new pandemic,” virologist Gerd Sutter of Ludwig-Maxiliams University in Munich said in an interview published Saturday by Zeit Online.
Smallpox viruses are different pathogens than those that trigger smallpox. The disease is one of the zoonoses, that is, diseases that spread repeatedly from animals to humans and are almost never transmitted between humans.
“As we have almost no immunity to the classic smallpox viruses, eradicated in nature over 40 years ago, monkeypox also spreads from time to time, but only selectively. They don’t do it as efficiently as the flu or Sars-CoV -2,” said the smallpox virologist.
same sex sex
According to the WHO, the diseases currently identified affect mainly – but not exclusively – men who have sex with people of the same sex. In all the cases being genetically analyzed, the pathogen is the West African variant, including the patient in Munich. Compared to the Central African variant, it generally leads to lighter courses.
“Without the potential to massively endanger the population”
“West African monkeypox is generally assumed to have an overall mortality rate of 1%, which mainly affects children under the age of 16,” said Clemens Wendtner, chief physician of the infectious disease clinic at a hospital in Schwabing. , in Munich. “But you have to keep in mind that these data from Africa are not necessarily transferable to the healthcare system in Europe or the US. Mortality would be lower here. This is a disease that I don’t think has the potential to massively affect the population.” in danger.”
According to health officials, the virus usually causes only mild symptoms, such as fever, headache, muscle aches and rashes. However, monkeypox can also have serious courses, in individual cases fatal diseases are possible. The pathogen virus is mainly transmitted by direct contact or contact with contaminated materials.
Beware of Immunocompromised People
Wendtner believes that caution is warranted in immunocompromised patient groups, ie those with weak immune systems. “This includes, for example, HIV patients without adequate drug disease control, but also, for example, tumor patients with severe immunosuppression, for example after stem cell therapy.” It is being discussed whether these risk groups can be protected with a vaccination. The Imvanex vaccine has been approved in the EU since 2013. Vaccination of contact persons is also being examined. The WHO wanted to convene experts to discuss possible vaccination recommendations.
Vaccination and medicines available
In addition to vaccination, the drug Tecovirimat is a treatment option for monkeypox that has been approved in the EU. However, the WHO pointed out that antidotes are currently not available in all sectors. Travel restrictions or event cancellations in affected countries are currently not necessary from a WHO perspective. Contagion can occur in mass events, but precautionary measures against Covid-19 would also work against monkeypox.
Uniform international guidelines are needed to decide whether monkeypox should be one of the notifiable diseases in the future and whether infected people should also be quarantined.