Does it spread pandemic?

Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic, you wouldn’t expect to talk so much about monkeypox. Alternatively, outbreaks of the virus, which are usually prevalent in West Africa and Central Africa, 18 people in 9 states of the United States When Almost 180 cases In england

But when it comes to illness patterns, experts said today that you should probably get used to the unexpected. And we should remember the important precautions we were accustomed to during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I didn’t expect to talk about this, especially given that I’m in the middle of a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,” said Dr. Michael Gale, an immunological scholar at the University of Washington. ..

Experts know that the virus can hide in animal species before it infects humans, and suspects that rodents are a natural reservoir. But they still don’t know for sure, so in a sense, “monkeypox outbreaks will always surprise people,” Gale said.

“This is the first time that widespread infections have been seen simultaneously in multiple countries, unrelated to travel to countries where monkeypox is more common,” said UCLA Health’s co-chief director of infection prevention. The person in charge, Dr. Daniel Uslan, said. Infectious disease department, said today.

But “seeing cases in the United States is not completely unprecedented,” Uslan said.In the past there was a small cluster of subsequent cases People traveled to countries like Nigeria Where is the monkeypox? EndemicAnd cases dating back to exotic animals.

“Monkeypox is an infectious disease that we know can spread from person to person in the right conditions,” said an infectious disease epidemiologist and former assistant director of the World Health Organization’s Health and Safety Department. One Dr. David Hayman said today.

“What we have to do now is to make sure we can stop it,” he said.

When asked if monkeypox could be the next pandemic, this week’s WHO expert said, “I don’t know the answer, but I don’t think so.” And today’s experts said they agreed that monkeypox is unlikely to become another pandemic on the scale of COVID-19.

“This isn’t what you normally see in monkeypox, but it’s not a new virus,” Uslan said. “There’s a lot to learn about the current outbreak, but we know so much about monkeypox,” he said. “And I’m not terribly worried about this spreading.”

This is partly due to the wealth of tools and knowledge about this virus ( Smallpox vaccine), But it is also because the virus itself behaves differently than the coronavirus. Gale explained that the virus that causes monkeypox is a DNA virus, which means it is less likely to develop worrisome mutations or mutations than the coronavirus.

But you still need to take precautions and get people to know How the monkeypox virus spreadsThose with the highest risk of exposure and symptoms caused by monkeypox.

As with COVID, it is important to remember that there are tools that can help prevent the spread of monkeypox. “It’s in our hands right now to control this, and if we want to stop it, we need to do it the right way,” says Hayman.

First, heymann advised to assess the risk of exposure so that appropriate precautions can be taken. Think about the risk of monkeypox before making close physical contact with someone. This is especially true if you have traveled to countries in Central or West Africa where the virus is endemic.

Note that so far, the virus appears to be predominantly spread among other men who have sex with men. According to WHO.. Therefore, people in that population should take special care to understand their risks. But monkeypox doesn’t just affect people in this group, Hayman said.

Second, I know Symptoms of monkeypox — Especially new or abnormal rashes — so that you can get immediate care. And if you are diagnosed with an illness, you should isolate yourself to protect the people around you. If you are likely to have been exposed to monkeypox, you may be vaccinated against prophylactic monkeypox or smallpox.

The outbreak of monkeypox reminds us that the virus can surprise us even after more than two years of COVID-19 — and we should continue to prepare for the unexpected.

“We see a case of influenza in Los Angeles in late May, which is unheard of,” Uslan said. Experts speculate that the pandemic interfered with our interaction, “changing the normal cycle and pattern of exposure and immunity.”

Climate change may also play a role, Gale said. This is because changes in weather patterns and human behavior force more interactions between humans and animals, thus making interspecies disease spread more likely. “It can lead to more Zika virus exposure, or bats carrying the coronavirus will move their habitat based on weather patterns,” he explained.

“This kind of monkeypox (outbreak) is a good thing to remind us that there is an infection in a population of animals that infect humans,” Hayman agreed. “We need to be aware that there is an entire animal kingdom that is home to organisms that can invade humans.”

Outbreaks are also an “opportunity to show what outbreaks we have done” and alert and facilitate quarantine for those who need them, including follow-up cases from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts today have difficulty knowing exactly what we are waiting for in this outbreak, or what it might happen in the future, but it costs money to prepare for surprises. .. “If any of us have learned something in the field of infectious diseases in the last few years, it’s how inexperienced we need to be and how humble we need to be,” Uslan said. ..

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