UK- Two cases of monkeypox virus found in Wales, June 2021

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Israel and Switzerland are the latest countries to confirm cases of monkeypox, bringing the total number of nations reporting outbreaks to 14.

The World Health Organization has said another 50 suspected cases are being investigated - without naming the countries involved - and warned that more infections are likely to be confirmed.

It is not yet clear why this unexpected outbreak is happening now.
One possibility is that the virus has changed in some way, although currently there is little evidence to suggest this is a new variant.
Another explanation is that the virus has found itself in the right place at the right time to thrive.

Monkeypox may also spread more easily than it did in the past, when the smallpox vaccine was widely used.
The WHO's regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, has warned that "transmission could accelerate" during the summer season, as people gather for festivals and parties.

www.bbc.com

Monkeypox: Israel and Switzerland confirm cases

It means the viral outbreak has spread to 14 countries with more than 80 cases detected so far.
www.bbc.com
 
A senior adviser for the World Health Organization has said the monkeypox outbreak seems to be spreading through sexual contact, and warned that case numbers could spike over the summer months as people attend major summer gatherings and festivals.

“What seems to be happening now is that it has got into the population as a sexual form, as a genital form, and is being spread, as are sexually transmitted infections, which has amplified its transmission around the world,” Heymann said.

The virus does not spread easily between people, though officials have said transmission can occur through contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores such as clothing and bedding, or through respiratory droplets following prolonged face-to-face contact.

www.theguardian.com

Monkeypox outbreak: WHO working on sexual contact theory, top adviser says

David Heymann says experts developing guidance for countries, as New York City resident tests positive for Orthopoxvirus
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Due to the undeclared war between NATO and Russia that began with the invasion of Ukraine, IMO it may be possible that Russia has released monkeypox from its bioweapon stockpiles or bioweapon development labs. In recent years, Russia has boldly used chemical weapons to attack individuals in the West, such as the Skripal attack in Salisbury, UK. Some kind of surreptitious release of a biowarfare agent is not out of the question. The Russians may view this as a justified response to the support given to Ukraine by NATO countries. Perhaps the clade of monkeypox that has just emerged was engineered for more efficient spread, with sexual transmission a characteristic of a laboratory-optimized virus.

At this early point, I don't think biowarfare can be ruled out, although as we know from Covid, viruses often evolve in new and unexpected ways. Also, just because many of the current victims are gay males, it doesn't mean that the virus isn't spreading among other groups or won't spread to those who aren't gay males.
 
Terminally ill Putin and Soviet reservoirs of monkeypox???? Hmmm. Gets one to thinking.

I'd be watching Finland and Sweden because of their recent declarations to join NATO.

The viral epidemiologist specialists are saying this is a Very Different Disease Pattern than for either variant of typical monkeypox.

It's scary to read that a child in the UK is critically ill and hospitalized. Children, of course, would be the most susceptible of all.

Time to order disposable gloves and bleach, pull out the Covid hand-sanitizer I put away, order more masks, too.

Time to pull out the vaccines. Again.
 
rbbm.
www.cp24.com

Report all suspected monkeypox cases immediately, Ontario's top public health official orders

Ontario’s top public health official issued issued an order to healthcare providers requiring them to report any possible or suspected cases of monkeypox to local authorities.
www.cp24.com www.cp24.com

''At the same time, Shahin said that monkeypox is not easily spread and usually requires prolonged face-to-face contact or skin-to-skin contact with the lesions.

“The risk is really low. It’s not easily spread like COVID, which is reassuring, but we’re asking anyone who may have been exposed to just be on the lookout for any unusual lesions that they may have.”

Anyone with symptoms is being asked to seek medical attention.

WHAT DOES A SUSPECTED CASE MEAN?​

According to the section 77.6 order, a suspected case of monkeypox is defined as a new onset rash and at least one other acute sign or symptom of the illness. It also means that an alternative diagnosis cannot fully explain the patient’s ailments.

A “probable case” is being defined as a patient who meets the definition of a suspected case but also has a high-risk exposure to a probably or confirmed human case of monkeypox, has a history of travel to a region with a confirmed case or has a “relevant zoonotic exposure.”

A case becomes confirmed when there is a laboratory test conducted and monkeypox virus DNA is detected.

The incubation period can range between 5 and 21 days, officials say.''
 
www.bloomberg.com

Why Wiping Out Smallpox Has Stoked Risk of Monkeypox

The global eradication of smallpox more than 40 years ago was one of the greatest achievements in public-health history, vanquishing a cause of death, blindness and disfigurement that had plagued humanity for at least 3,000 years. But, on the downside, it led to the end of a global vaccination...
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com

''What’s unusual this time?''​

There’ve been multiple chains of transmission in clusters in multiple countries that don’t normally report monkeypox. Cases don’t involve recent travel to places where the disease is endemic. Instead, community spread is suspected, possibly involving substantial numbers of asymptomatic infections. These are known to occur, but usually in people who’ve had the smallpox vaccine, which ceased being widely used 40 to 50 years ago. Smallpox wasn’t transmitted in asymptomatically infected people, so it’s unlikely monkeypox will be very different, according to Raina MacIntyre, professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. A large proportion of cases have been among men who have sex with men, suggesting transmission through close sexual and personal contact. Early analysis of the genetic sequence of monkeypox virus collected from a patient in Portugal indicates that the strain spreading there belongs to the West African clade, or branch on the evolutionary tree, and is most closely related to viruses found in cases exported from Nigeria to the UK, Israel and Singapore in recent years. Monkeypox virus strains from this clade have a case-fatality rate of 1% to 3.6%. (That compares with 10% for a second clade called Congo Basin, which appears on the US government’s bioterrorism agent list as having the potential to pose a severe threat.)''

www.walesonline.co.uk

Monkeypox outbreaks linked to festish festival and sauna

Harvard professor has stated that there are now 127 confirmed cases in 11 different countries
www.walesonline.co.uk www.walesonline.co.uk
''Separate Monkeypox outbreaks in Europe have been linked to a fetish festival and a sauna superspreader event.''

In Spain, the majority of the country's 30 people who have been diagnosed with monkeypox are said to have contracted it from a specific sauna in the nation's capital city, as reported in The Daily Mirror. Health officials have also claimed that a "notable proportion" of the people infected in the UK and Europe are gay or bisexual men, according to the Madrid region's health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero.''

canoe.com

WHO expects more cases of monkeypox to emerge globally

The World Health Organization said it expects to identify more cases of monkeypox across the globe.
canoe.com canoe.com
Early genomic sequencing of a handful of the cases in Europe has suggested a similarity with the strain that spread in a limited fashion in Britain, Israel and Singapore in 2018

Heymann said it was “biologically plausible” the virus had been circulating outside of the countries where it is endemic, but had not led to major outbreaks as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, social distancing and travel restrictions.

He stressed that the monkeypox outbreak did not resemble the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic because it does not transmit as easily.''
 
Is this a typo from that article?

These are known to occur, but usually in people who’ve had the smallpox vaccine, which ceased being widely used 40 to 50 years ago.

I thought people who had received the smallpox vaccine, even though it was 50+ years ago would have some small degree of resistance, and that group of over-60 year olds would not the the most susceptible.

Also interesting from canoe.com article that there is thought that monkeypox has been prevented from circulating more widely because people were using Covid precautions to a certain degree.

I have to say personally, that I have not experienced the usual winter sequence of bad colds this year, likely because I was following the COVID mask, hand washing, and to a degree - social isolation that has been prescribed for the last 2 years or so.
 
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Herat said:
Is this a typo from that article?

These are known to occur, but usually in people who’ve had the smallpox vaccine, which ceased being widely used 40 to 50 years ago.

I thought people who had received the smallpox vaccine, even though it was 50+ years ago would have some small degree of resistance, and that group of over-60 year olds would not the the most susceptible.

Also interesting from canoe.com article that there is thought that monkeypox has been prevented from circulating more widely because people were using Covid precautions to a certain degree.

I have to say personally, that I have not experienced the usual winter sequence of bad colds this year, likely because I was following the COVID mask, hand washing, and to a degree - social isolation that has been prescribed for the last 2 years or so.
Click to expand...
Had to reread that bit to understand (i hope) that they meant that the people who have had the smallpox vaccine, may actually have asymptomatic infections which possibly has led to community spread.imo

"......community spread is suspected, possibly involving substantial numbers of asymptomatic infections. These are known to occur, but usually in people who’ve had the smallpox vaccine''
 
Herat said:
Is this a typo from that article?

These are known to occur, but usually in people who’ve had the smallpox vaccine, which ceased being widely used 40 to 50 years ago.

I thought people who had received the smallpox vaccine, even though it was 50+ years ago would have some small degree of resistance, and that group of over-60 year olds would not the the most susceptible.

Also interesting from canoe.com article that there is thought that monkeypox has been prevented from circulating more widely because people were using Covid precautions to a certain degree.

I have to say personally, that I have not experienced the usual winter sequence of bad colds this year, likely because I was following the COVID mask, hand washing, and to a degree - social isolation that has been prescribed for the last 2 years or so.
Click to expand...
I had to read that twice too. I think it says that community spread may be attributed, to some degree, to asymptomatic people who have had the smallpox vaccine. People who have had the smallpox vaccine may have some resistance to the monkeypox virus.

"Cases don’t involve recent travel to places where the disease is endemic. Instead, community spread is suspected, possibly involving substantial numbers of asymptomatic infections. These are known to occur, but usually in people who’ve had the smallpox vaccine, which ceased being widely used 40 to 50 years ago."
 
Herat said:
Add Australia to the map:

www.reuters.com

Australia reports first monkeypox case in traveller from Britain

Australia on Friday reported its first monkeypox case in a traveller who recently returned from Britain, while a probable case of infection was identified with testing being carried out to confirm it.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
Click to expand...

I know there is Monkeypox in Australia and it IS on the map.

I meant that Australia is not in NATO (referring to the map).

Australia is, of course, an ally.
 
I feel for anyone who contracts it.
Is it odd that there have never been outbreaks in multiple countries like this before? Before Covid there must have been countless potential spreading events. So what made the difference this year?
 
ChatteringBirds said:
I feel for anyone who contracts it.
Is it odd that there have never been outbreaks in multiple countries like this before? Before Covid there must have been countless potential spreading events. So what made the difference this year?
Click to expand...

People are travelling again and socializing in large numbers again.

If/when they are sure who patient zero is, they will have a better idea but between the above article and the ‘sauna’ in Spain, it’s likely due to travelling esp. by plane.

eg. If patient zero is on plane, uses washroom and it’s not sanitized between passengers, the next person touches the door lock, taps etc and you get spread of disease. It Could also be as simple as an infected someone sneezing, airborne.
 
ChatteringBirds said:
I feel for anyone who contracts it.
Is it odd that there have never been outbreaks in multiple countries like this before? Before Covid there must have been countless potential spreading events. So what made the difference this year?
Click to expand...
Lowered immune system due to being previously exposed to COVID? I'd like to know if the patients are all recovering or had COVID in the past two years or not.
I also wonder if any of them had a smallpox vaccine as a child?
International travel helps viruses spread quickly esp. if monkeypox is asymptotic some people would explain how it traveled out of Africa so quickly undetected.
Or it's a mutation?
 
x_files said:
Lowered immune system due to being previously exposed to COVID? I'd like to know if the patients are all recovering or had COVID in the past two years or not.
I also wonder if any of them had a smallpox vaccine as a child?
International travel helps viruses spread quickly esp. if monkeypox is asymptotic some people would explain how it traveled out of Africa so quickly undetected.
Or it's a mutation?
Click to expand...
In the article I posted above, it explains that six Americans sat within three rows of a Brit, flying from Nigeria to Britain in early May. 7 hr flight

The British person became the first person who tested positive.

They don’t say if that is patient zero or not.

Seeing as smallpox vaccines were stopped decades ago, I suspect that most or all did not have the vaccine. IMO
 
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