May 8, 2022
The most prominent symptom of monkeypox is a rash that begins on the face and then spreads to the rest of the body
The health authorities in Britain announced another case of monkeypox for a person who had traveled to Nigeria in the recent period and was diagnosed with the virus in England. In the following, we review the most important information available regarding this rare and unknown disease.
How far can it spread?
The cause of monkeypox infection is a virus of the same name, which is from the same family as common smallpox, but experts believe that it is less dangerous than it and that the chances of infection with it are small.
This is the first appearance of the virus in Britain, as it spreads most often in remote areas of Central and West African countries near tropical rainforests.
There are two strains of this virus; They are the Central African breed and the West African breed.
Two of the monkeypox patients in Britain recently came from Nigeria, which suggests that they were infected with West African strain – a strain that shows mild symptoms, but this has not yet been confirmed.
As for the third case, it is for a health care worker to whom the infection was transmitted from one of the infected people.
What are the symptoms of the disease?
Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, bloating, backache, muscle aches, and lethargy.
Once the temperature rises, a rash appears beginning on the face and then moves to other parts of the body, but it is most often on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
The infection goes away without medical intervention following symptoms last for regarding 14 to 21 days.
How can you get sick?
The disease is transmitted to a person when they come into contact with people with the virus. The virus may enter the body through cracks in the skin, the respiratory tract, or through the eyes, nose, or mouth.
It can also be transmitted from an infected animal, such as monkeys, rats and squirrels, to humans or from surfaces and objects contaminated with the virus such as bedding and clothing.
How dangerous is this virus?
Most infections with this virus are mild, sometimes similar to chickenpox, and disappear without medical intervention in a few weeks.
Sometimes the injury may be more serious. Deaths from the disease have also been recorded in West Africa.
picture released, Science Photo Library
There is no cure for the virus that causes monkeypox so far, but its symptoms disappear within a few weeks without medical intervention
How likely is the disease to spread?
The disease was discovered for the first time following a monkey infected with it in captivity, and since 1970 there has been an intermittent spread of the disease from time to time in ten African countries.
The virus spread to the United States in 2003, which was the first time that the disease had appeared outside Africa. The disease was transmitted to the United States at that time through contact with a prairie dog, to which the infection was transmitted from some mammals imported from abroad. The number of infected cases at that time was 81, but no deaths were recorded due to the virus.
In 2017, Nigeria experienced the largest documented outbreak in nearly 40 years since the country’s last confirmed case. There were also 172 suspected cases. And 75 percent of those infected during this outbreak were men from the age group of 21 to 40 years.
what is the cure?
There is no cure for monkeypox, but the spread can be reduced by some restrictions that prevent transmission.
There is a vaccine once morest chickenpox that has been proven to be 85 percent effective in preventing infection, and it is still used occasionally.
Is it cause for concern?
Experts believe that Britain is not facing an imminent spread of the virus, according to Public Health England, which said that the disease does not pose a threat to public health.
“The fact that only one out of every fifty people who come into contact with people infected with monkeypox is infected reveals how low the chances of transmission,” said Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham.
“It is wrong to think that we are on the verge of spreading the disease across the country,” he added.
Nick Fane, deputy head of national infection control at Public Health England, said: “It is essential to stress that monkeypox does not spread easily between humans and that its public health risk is very low.
The Public Health Authority in England is following up the cases of contacts of infected people who have been confirmed to be infected to provide medical advice and monitor them, as necessary.