Contents
Monkey pox appeared in Europe in early May. Scientists are surprised by the fact that most of those infected have not traveled to Africa because the disease is mainly present there. The main source of infection in this case is humans, not animals, although it is a contagious zoonotic disease. Is it easy to get infected then? When does this happen and how does it differ from the well-known COVID-19 disease?
- The monkey pox virus is poorly transmitted from person to person. There must be very close and long-term contact
- The virus enters the body through damaged skin, respiratory tract or mucous membranes
- Most often, however, a person becomes infected from a dead or alive animal when scratched or bitten
- Most patients recover within a few weeks
- It cannot be confused with COVID-19 because it is accompanied by a characteristic rash.
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
Monkey pox – what is this disease?
Monkey pox is a rare zoonotic viral infection that does not spread readily from person to person. The disease was discovered in 1958 in macaque monkeys who came from Singapore to a Danish laboratory to conduct polio vaccine research on them. Hence the name of the disease.
The monkey pox virus belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus of the Poxviridae family. This type of pathogen also includes vaccinia virus or vaccinia virus.
The disease is usually mild. Most patients recover within a few weeks. However, it can be severe in some people. It is fatal for one in 10 infected.
Virologists point out that monkey pox is a milder version of smallpox, which was eliminated (eradicated) in the world over 40 years ago thanks to mass vaccination. They protect in over 85 percent. against monkey pox, which has little to do with chicken pox.
How is the disease contracted?
Experts emphasize that the virus does not spread well between people. You need to have close contact with an infected person, his body fluids, e.g. saliva or blood, or contaminated objects, e.g. bedding or clothing.
Most often, a person becomes infected from a dead or alive animal, most often a rodent (e.g. rats, squirrels). It must scratch or bite the person. Also, inadequately cooked meat from an infected animal can be a source of infection.
The virus enters the body through damaged skin, respiratory tract or mucous membranes.
Monkeys – like humans – are disease carriers, but not a reservoir, i.e. an environment for pathogens in which they reproduce.
Monkey pox – symptoms?
At first, there is fever, pain in the muscles, headaches, back pain, chills and a feeling of tiredness. The lymph nodes become enlarged. Often times, within one to three days of the onset of a fever, a patient develops a rash that first starts on the face and then spreads to other parts of the body, including the hands and feet. Initially, they are spots that turn into lumps, vesicles, pustules, and crusts. There may be several such changes, but also hundreds and thousands. Skin lesions appear at the same stage, unlike chicken pox.
It takes 5 to 21 days from infection to the onset of symptoms (incubation period). The disease lasts for two to four weeks and ends with complete recovery. It rarely gives complications.
The disease picture itself is similar to that of smallpox and other orthopoxivirus diseases. The main difference between these diseases is that the monkey pox virus causes enlargement of the lymph nodes (e.g. in the cervical or inguinal area), while the symptom of smallpox and chickenpox is unlikely to occur.
How is monkey pox different from COVID-19?
Monkey pox is hard to confuse with COVID-19 disease. It is true that both diseases are contagious and a person becomes infected as a result of contact with the patient through droplets, but with COVID-19 it may be less intense contact. The pox virus is harder to transmit in a word than the coronavirus. It takes a very intimate rapprochement to infect another person.
At the beginning, both conditions may be accompanied by weakness, fever, headaches, and muscle aches. However, the rash that appears on the body with smallpox is very characteristic. On the other hand, COVID-19 in many cases causes the SARS-CoV-2 infected virus to lose their sense of smell and taste. These are the symptoms typical of this disease.