The first case of monkeypox was detected in Geneva yesterday. For several days, its mode of transmission has been at the heart of the questions of the experts. Official press releases advance sexual relations between men as a potential factor of transmission.
Professor Alexandra Calmy, head of HIV consultations at HUG, tempers on the rapid interpretations that are spreading around monkeypox. In its endemic form, the modes of transmission of this virus are known, reports the Professor who mentions close and intimate contacts (saliva, sheets, respiratory tract) in particular.
Medicine not as confident as the state
In a press release from the Geneva State Council, homosexual relations are targeted: “people with several sexual partners, including men who have sex with men, seem to present an additional risk of transmission”. Alexandra Calmy does not seem so categorical: “that it is transmitted during sexual intercourse, of course, that it is transmitted in the restricted sense of a sexually transmitted disease, through sperm for example, I believe that we have not enough elements to affirm it”.
The Professor says that the hospital is investigating whether the transmission of monkeypox is linked to the frequency of sexual intercourse or if there is another mode of contamination that needs to be investigated.
“There is probably transmission during sexual intercourse. Why and under what conditions, today we cannot say.
The health professional specifies that there is nothing to worry regarding this virus today. She points out that at this point the rhetoric used must be careful when discussing monkeypox to “avoid stereotyping”.