As public health officials in Europe and North America scramble to contain the growing monkeypox outbreak, a new study suggests that the monkeypox outbreak may be grossly underestimated because Symptoms of infection this year are very different from those in the past.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) European head, Hans Kluge, warned on July 1 that urgent action is needed in Europe, where monkeypox cases have tripled in the past two weeks.
“Today, I redouble my call for governments and civil society to step up their efforts in the coming weeks and months to prevent the spread of monkeypox in a growing geographic area,” Krueger said in a statement. There is room for complacency, especially in the European region, where the outbreak is spreading rapidly, expanding hourly, daily and weekly to previously unaffected areas.”
Symptoms in recent monkeypox cases appear to be milder and more localized than what doctors have seen in the past, according to a study published today in the British medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The researchers looked at 54 patients who were seen in four sexual health centres in London in May, all identified as men who had sex with men, who had symptoms and developed rashes, but the incidence of rashes on the genitals and anus in this group of patients. higher, while the incidence of tiredness and fever was lower than in previous studies. 18% of patients reported no symptoms prior to the rash.
Previous records showed rashes covering multiple body parts, particularly the extremities, face and neck, but in London patients the rashes tended to be more localized, with 31% of the rashes occurring only on the genital or anal area.
The study highlights that in this outbreak, many cases reported in the US, UK and Europe are different from previous ones, with a significant number of people reporting no pre-rash symptoms at all, and that the rash started on the genital and anal areas, sometimes not. It can spread to other places, and some patients are said to have only one or two pimples.
One in four patients infected with monkeypox also tested for chlamydia, said Dr Ruth Byrne, a research doctor at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Or gonorrhea (or both) positive, which, combined with prevalence of lesions in the genital and anal areas, suggests that the virus is spread through close contact during sexual activity.
Monkeypox infection has the potential to “manifestly resemble common sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes and syphilis,” said Byrne, urging clinicians and patients to be vigilant to prevent misdiagnosis.
The researchers suggest that the current case definition of “probable cases” for monkeypox should be reviewed to help identify monkeypox cases. They also predict that the high incidence of genital skin lesions in patients and the high rate of co-occurring sexually transmitted infections means that sexual health clinics will likely see more monkeypox cases.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Li Zhaoxi/responsible editor: Lin Qing)
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