African scientists puzzled by monkeypox cases in Europe and the United States

Scientists who have monitored the large number of monkeypox outbreaks in London-Africa say they are puzzled by the recent epidemic of monkeypox in Europe and North America.

Cases of smallpox-related illness were previously seen only among people associated with Central and West Africa. But last week, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the United States, Sweden and Canada all reported infections, especially among young men who had never traveled to Africa before.

According to the World Health Organization, there are about 80 confirmed cases and an additional 50 suspicious cases worldwide. France, Germany, Belgium and Australia reported their first case on Friday.

“I’m surprised at this. When I wake up every day, more and more countries are infected,” said Oyewale Tomori, a virologist who heads the former Nigerian Academy of Sciences and is a member of several WHO advisory boards. Mr. says.

“This isn’t as widespread as we’ve seen in West Africa, so something new may be happening in West Africa,” he said.

To date, no one has died from this outbreak. Monkeypox usually causes fever, chills, rashes, and lesions on the face and genitals. The WHO estimates that the disease is fatal in 1 in 10 people, but smallpox vaccines are prophylactic and several antiviral drugs have been developed.

Britain health Authorities are investigating whether the disease is sexually transmitted. Health officials are calling on doctors and nurses to pay attention to potential cases, but say the risk to the general public is low. The European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended quarantining all suspicious cases and providing smallpox vaccine to high-risk contacts.

Nigeria reports about 3,000 cases of monkeypox annually, WHO said. According to Tomori, outbreaks usually occur in rural areas where people are in close contact with infected mice and squirrels. He said many cases were likely to be overlooked.

Dr. Ifedayo Adettifa, director of the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said none of the Nigerian contacts of British patients had developed symptoms and investigations are underway.

Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO’s Director of Europe, described the outbreak as “atypical” and suggested that “the infection has been going on for some time” as the disease has appeared in so many countries across the continent. bottom. He said most of the European cases were mild.

On Friday, the UK Health and Security Agency reported 11 new cases of monkeypox, with a “significant rate” of infections in the UK and Europe having no travel history to Africa, gay, bisexual, or. He said he was a young man who had sex with a man.

Spanish and Portuguese officials also said their cases were predominantly young men who had sex with other men, and those cases were taken up when the men appeared with sexual lesions. health clinic.

Experts emphasize that it is not known whether the disease is spreading through sex or by other close contact related to sex.

No sexually transmitted infections were seen in Nigeria, Tomori said, but viruses that were initially unknown, such as Ebola, can be transmitted after a larger epidemic shows various patterns of spread. Said later proved.

The same may apply to monkeypox, Tomori said.

In Germany, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he was confident that the government could contain the outbreak. He said the virus was sequenced to see if there were genetic changes that could make the virus more infectious.

Infectious disease professor Rolf Gustafson told Swedish broadcaster SVT that it was “very difficult” to imagine that the situation could get worse.

“We will certainly find some more cases in Sweden, but I don’t think there will be an epidemic,” Gustafsson said. “There is nothing to suggest at this time.”

Scientists said the first patient of the outbreak may have been ill while in Africa, but what is happening now is exceptional.

“I’ve never seen anything happening in Europe,” said Christian Happi, director of the African Center for Infectious Diseases Genomics. “There is nothing to say that the monkeypox infection pattern is changing in Africa, so if something else is happening in Europe, Europe needs to investigate it.”

Happi also pointed out that the suspension of the smallpox vaccination campaign after the eradication of smallpox in 1980 may have inadvertently helped the spread of monkeypox. Smallpox vaccine also prevents monkeypox, but mass immunization was discontinued decades ago.

“Except for people in West Africa and Central Africa who may have some immunity to monkeypox from past exposures, not being vaccinated against smallpox means any kind of monkeypox. It means that you don’t have any immunity, “Happi said.

Shabir Mahdi, a professor of vaccine science at the University of the Witwatersland in Johannesburg, said a detailed study of the outbreak in Europe, including determining who the first patient was, is now important.

“We really need to understand how this first started and why the virus is gaining momentum now,” he said. “In Africa, the outbreak of monkeypox is very controlled and rare. If it is changing now, we really need to understand why.”

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Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Chineseu Asadu in Lagos, Nigeria, and AP reporters across Europe contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press’s Department of Health Sciences is supported by the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.