Monkeypox

About Monkeypox:

• The researchers have estimated that 53% of monkeypox virus transmission have occurred during the pre-symptomatic phase.
• Pre-symptomatic transmission of monkeypox virus will mean that many infections cannot be prevented by isolating peopleshowing symptoms. Also, the effectiveness of contact tracing and subsequent quarantine will not be sufficient to break the transmission chain since by the time all the contacts have been traced, they might have already spread the virus to other people.

Monkeypox virus:

• The monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus, which is a genus of viruses that also includes the variola virus, which causes smallpox, and vaccinia virus, which was used in the smallpox vaccine.
• Monkeypox causes symptoms similar to smallpox, although they are less severe.
• While vaccination eradicated smallpox worldwide in 1980, monkeypox continues to occur in a swathe of countries in Central and West Africa, and has on occasion showed up elsewhere.
• According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), two distinct clade are identified:
  • the West African clade and
  • the Congo Basin clade, also known as the Central African clade.
• Monkeypox is a zoonosis, that is, a disease that is transmitted from infected animals to humans.
• Cases occur close to tropical rainforests inhabited by animals that carry the virus.
• Monkeypox virus infection has been detected in squirrels, Gambian poached rats, dormice, and some species of monkeys.
• Human-to-human transmission is, however, limited. Transmission, when it occurs, can be through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.

Source : The Hindu