Sweden's public health agency has recorded what it says is the first case of a contagious new variant of mpox outside the African continent.
The person became infected during a stay in an area of Africa where there is currently a major outbreak of mpox Clade 1, the agency said.
Considering that it's only one person, the disease requires close contact to spread, and the infected person is already being treated and likely quarantined, I don't think there's much cause for...
Considering that it's only one person, the disease requires close contact to spread, and the infected person is already being treated and likely quarantined, I don't think there's much cause for concern yet. Don't borrow worries from tomorrow, today has enough of its own.
No, that makes me feel better. I mean they feared covid cause they did expect it would easily spread. The fact they think this one is contained is comforting.
No, that makes me feel better. I mean they feared covid cause they did expect it would easily spread. The fact they think this one is contained is comforting.
I think I have actual PTSD (or something similar but less acute) from 2020. Whenever I read articles like this my parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and I start filling up with dread. I have...
I think I have actual PTSD (or something similar but less acute) from 2020. Whenever I read articles like this my parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and I start filling up with dread. I have flashbacks about the timeline of the early days of covid. My brain knows it's likely nothing to be alarmed about, but after the stresses of surviving one global pandemic I have reflexive anxiety about facing another.
We definitely have a global trauma over the pandemic. Whether it falls into PTSD or any diagnosis it may be worth talking to a professional about if it's hitting you that hard! This doesn't hit me...
We definitely have a global trauma over the pandemic. Whether it falls into PTSD or any diagnosis it may be worth talking to a professional about if it's hitting you that hard!
This doesn't hit me but I get real anxious about travel and large groups of folks at conferences or events. I don't want to get my partner sick.
Death isn't rare with the clade 1 mutation that's spreading in DRC and other countries. It's very dangerous to children, the elderly, and immunocompromised people. Infection can cause fetal loss...
Death isn't rare with the clade 1 mutation that's spreading in DRC and other countries. It's very dangerous to children, the elderly, and immunocompromised people. Infection can cause fetal loss and miscarriage. The case fatality rate may be as high as 10% depending on the population and availability of hospital care. Though as we've seen with COVID-19, the lack of widespread testing may exaggerate deaths vs infections.
I've heard from friends in the U.S. gay community that the less virulent clade 2 mpox infections were horrible - excruciating pain for weeks, scarring, eye damage, hospitalizations due to inability to urinate or swallow. Condoms didn't reliably prevent infection.
Mpox can spread through respiratory droplets, casual contact, excreta, contaminated clothing and bedding, and it can also infect rodents and other animals. The virus can be carried without noticeable symptoms.
So it's not quite as much of a bowel-loosening public health terror as smallpox, or as easily spread as COVID-19, but still worthy of an "emergency" response. Vaccine distribution should have begun months ago, but as usual, war and poverty complicate matters.
Here we go again. I've got plenty of COVID-19 PTSD to go around, but mostly I'm furious at rich countries hoarding vaccines and trying to pretend that poor or faraway humans aren't of concern....
Here we go again. I've got plenty of COVID-19 PTSD to go around, but mostly I'm furious at rich countries hoarding vaccines and trying to pretend that poor or faraway humans aren't of concern.
We're all one species, dammit. Any infectious disease that preys on one person will become a problem for many, without regard for borders.
You're most likely not at risk unless you are a man who has sex with men. This didnt make the news very much the last time there was a mpox outbreak, and the initial warnings were vague. After...
You're most likely not at risk unless you are a man who has sex with men.
This didnt make the news very much the last time there was a mpox outbreak, and the initial warnings were vague. After awhile there was more clarity and it was clear that mpox is not a big risk in the general population but it is a significant risk in the gay and bisexual population. Unfortunately, we are now at the stage of political correctness where the medical community is more worried about stigmatizing rather than accuracy so they can no longer be that specific and must send out warnings to everyone even though the proportion of people who have contracted mpox is overwhelmingly in one particular sexual group. Its not a sexually transmitted disease, its transmitted by close contact but that kind of contact normally occurs during sex so the point is rather moot.
This was the warning sent out in Hawaii during the last outbreak:
What does monkeypox have to do with gay and bisexual men and other MSM?
The current outbreak of monkeypox in Europe and North America appears to be
related to two raves held recently in Spain and Belgium and attended primarily by
gay men, according to David Heymann, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an advisor to the World
Health Organization. The virus was likely transmitted via sexual contact, Heymann
theorized. However, as sexual contact involves close physical contact,
distinguishing between the two in terms of contribution to transmission would be
difficult. The CDC subsequently issued an alert during the May 23 media briefing
warning gay and bisexual men that the virus appears to be spreading in the
community globally.
And this is directly from GLAAD:
"Early data of the current outbreak shows 98% of the cases were among gay or bisexual men."
The remaining 2% are most likely partners who have had contact with the above, so no, unlike covid, you are not at risk just from being in the general population and its not air borne, it requires close contact.
This is not out political correctness, it was widely known among queer men that they were at higher risk. It's just possible that the CDC and WHO learned from HIV that STIs (and yes this can be an...
This is not out political correctness, it was widely known among queer men that they were at higher risk. It's just possible that the CDC and WHO learned from HIV that STIs (and yes this can be an STI, that's how herpes spreads too) may impact particular populations first - nonmonogamous sexually active people, sex workers, people in areas without access to barrier methods of contraception or medical treatment. But they don't magically stay locked to that population.
And instead of once again stigmatizing queer men they focused on how low the risk was for most of the population while targeting queer men for vaccines.
However your information is not accurate for the current outbreak
During the global outbreak of mpox in 2022, gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases and the virus was mostly spread through close contact, including sex.
Although some similar patterns have been seen in Africa, children under 15 now account for more than 70 percent of the mpox cases and 85 percent of deaths in Congo.
Ahead of its emergency meeting, Tedros said officials were dealing with several mpox outbreaks in various countries with "different modes of transmission and different levels of risk."
Males account for 73% of the cases in DRC [8]. In Congo, based on information provided by Africa CDC, most confirmed cases (56%) were children <15-years-old and 58% were males; similarly, in the Central African Republic, 43% of the confirmed cases were <15-year-olds and 62% males [9]. pdf
Also the death rate is up to 3-4% and the symptoms have often been milder at first, leading more people to spread it.
Currently your risk is very, very low if you don't have contact with people from the DRC, Congo or CAR
Okay, I'm going to be the "someone is wrong on the Internet" person. Your information is outdated and applicable to the wrong mpox lineage. It's like the difference between SARS and COVID-19 -...
Okay, I'm going to be the "someone is wrong on the Internet" person. Your information is outdated and applicable to the wrong mpox lineage. It's like the difference between SARS and COVID-19 - related coronaviruses but with very different virulence and infectiousness.
The current mpox clade Ib strain is both more virulent and more contagious than the 2022 clade II strain. The origin of spread in DRC appears to have been heterosexual contact, and the majority of cases are now among children.
Mpox is spread through close contact with people who have the illness. Usually this is through skin-to-skin contact, such as sex, kissing or touching. The virus can also spread through respiratory droplets and contact with contaminated materials such as bedsheets, other linens or sharp objects like needles. People remain infectious until all of their sores heal.
Mpox can also spread through contact with infected animals such as through bites or scratches, or when people hunt or eat them.
Young adults and children have been most affected by the current outbreak, a trend that was not seen in the 2022-2023 outbreak. In some provinces of the DRC, children under 15 account for up to 69 per cent of suspected cases.
Is mpox clade Ib likely to become a threat to the general public in wealthy countries? Maybe - there's evidence that people can be asymptomatic carriers, sexual contact isn't required, and it can spread via respiratory droplets. Remember those COVID-19 6-foot distance precautions? Healthcare workers are probably most at risk. WHO is already recommending standard, contact, and droplet precautions for medical personnel.
I stand corrected. I didnt realize it was a different strain and yes, all my info was from the last outbreak. If the primary means of contracting is still "sex, kissing, touching" why are children...
I stand corrected. I didnt realize it was a different strain and yes, all my info was from the last outbreak.
If the primary means of contracting is still "sex, kissing, touching" why are children under 15 accounting for up to 69 percent of suspected cases? The implications are more than a bit disturbing.
Touching infected materials is one way to get it. So if the children are doing the laundry or the cooking that could be a risk. And a disease that causes you to itch, and thus scratch, hands...
Touching infected materials is one way to get it. So if the children are doing the laundry or the cooking that could be a risk. And a disease that causes you to itch, and thus scratch, hands touching other items are now a risk.
Children in hospitals are getting it too due to overcrowding, including a 2 week old infant who contracted it due to being put in a hospital room with an (unknown at the time) infected patient.
Additionally, caregivers have to fight socio-cultural stigma around the virus due to a widespread belief that it is spread only through sexual contact. In fact, the virus can spread by any skin-to-skin contact, airborne contact in proximity – like COVID-19 – and even from contaminated surfaces and objects such as bedding, clothing, and cooking utensils.
Transmission to and among children is consistent with shared living quarters and bedding, as well as respiratory droplets. Reports suggest more respiratory symptoms than in the 2022 outbreak....
Transmission to and among children is consistent with shared living quarters and bedding, as well as respiratory droplets. Reports suggest more respiratory symptoms than in the 2022 outbreak.
There are real problems with getting accurate data. There's no rapid test for mpox, and even symptomatic cases don't always manifest the characteristic skin lesions, especially in children. Given the widespread prevalence of measles and other serious childhood diseases, infected people don't isolate. PCR testing relies on fairly sophisticated equipment that's only available in major urban centers in DRC and neighboring affected countries.
First case of more contagious mpox found outside Africa
BBC News – Paul Kirby – 15th August 2024
They were treated in Stockholm. Health services do not expect the disease to spread.
Whenever I read, .."do not expect.." another item to add to the ever growing list of fears in our life grows.
Considering that it's only one person, the disease requires close contact to spread, and the infected person is already being treated and likely quarantined, I don't think there's much cause for concern yet. Don't borrow worries from tomorrow, today has enough of its own.
No, that makes me feel better. I mean they feared covid cause they did expect it would easily spread. The fact they think this one is contained is comforting.
How do they know how contagious it is if only one person has it? Can they tell by the shape or something?
It's the first one outside Africa. It's a major issue in several African countries.
I think I have actual PTSD (or something similar but less acute) from 2020. Whenever I read articles like this my parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and I start filling up with dread. I have flashbacks about the timeline of the early days of covid. My brain knows it's likely nothing to be alarmed about, but after the stresses of surviving one global pandemic I have reflexive anxiety about facing another.
We definitely have a global trauma over the pandemic. Whether it falls into PTSD or any diagnosis it may be worth talking to a professional about if it's hitting you that hard!
This doesn't hit me but I get real anxious about travel and large groups of folks at conferences or events. I don't want to get my partner sick.
FYI, I think you mean Sympathetic Nervous System, not Parasympathetic.
From Harvard Health
Ah, thanks for the correction.
For anyone else who may be curious, I looked up mpox on Mayoclinic for a general definition and symptoms, and CDC for sample images of the rash.
Based on this, is the disease that worrisome? The symptoms seem extremely uncomfortable, but death is quite rare?
Death isn't rare with the clade 1 mutation that's spreading in DRC and other countries. It's very dangerous to children, the elderly, and immunocompromised people. Infection can cause fetal loss and miscarriage. The case fatality rate may be as high as 10% depending on the population and availability of hospital care. Though as we've seen with COVID-19, the lack of widespread testing may exaggerate deaths vs infections.
I've heard from friends in the U.S. gay community that the less virulent clade 2 mpox infections were horrible - excruciating pain for weeks, scarring, eye damage, hospitalizations due to inability to urinate or swallow. Condoms didn't reliably prevent infection.
Mpox can spread through respiratory droplets, casual contact, excreta, contaminated clothing and bedding, and it can also infect rodents and other animals. The virus can be carried without noticeable symptoms.
So it's not quite as much of a bowel-loosening public health terror as smallpox, or as easily spread as COVID-19, but still worthy of an "emergency" response. Vaccine distribution should have begun months ago, but as usual, war and poverty complicate matters.
Here we go again. I've got plenty of COVID-19 PTSD to go around, but mostly I'm furious at rich countries hoarding vaccines and trying to pretend that poor or faraway humans aren't of concern.
We're all one species, dammit. Any infectious disease that preys on one person will become a problem for many, without regard for borders.
You're most likely not at risk unless you are a man who has sex with men.
This didnt make the news very much the last time there was a mpox outbreak, and the initial warnings were vague. After awhile there was more clarity and it was clear that mpox is not a big risk in the general population but it is a significant risk in the gay and bisexual population. Unfortunately, we are now at the stage of political correctness where the medical community is more worried about stigmatizing rather than accuracy so they can no longer be that specific and must send out warnings to everyone even though the proportion of people who have contracted mpox is overwhelmingly in one particular sexual group. Its not a sexually transmitted disease, its transmitted by close contact but that kind of contact normally occurs during sex so the point is rather moot.
This was the warning sent out in Hawaii during the last outbreak:
And this is directly from GLAAD:
The remaining 2% are most likely partners who have had contact with the above, so no, unlike covid, you are not at risk just from being in the general population and its not air borne, it requires close contact.
This is not out political correctness, it was widely known among queer men that they were at higher risk. It's just possible that the CDC and WHO learned from HIV that STIs (and yes this can be an STI, that's how herpes spreads too) may impact particular populations first - nonmonogamous sexually active people, sex workers, people in areas without access to barrier methods of contraception or medical treatment. But they don't magically stay locked to that population.
And instead of once again stigmatizing queer men they focused on how low the risk was for most of the population while targeting queer men for vaccines.
However your information is not accurate for the current outbreak
Also the death rate is up to 3-4% and the symptoms have often been milder at first, leading more people to spread it.
Currently your risk is very, very low if you don't have contact with people from the DRC, Congo or CAR
Okay, I'm going to be the "someone is wrong on the Internet" person. Your information is outdated and applicable to the wrong mpox lineage. It's like the difference between SARS and COVID-19 - related coronaviruses but with very different virulence and infectiousness.
The current mpox clade Ib strain is both more virulent and more contagious than the 2022 clade II strain. The origin of spread in DRC appears to have been heterosexual contact, and the majority of cases are now among children.
Is mpox clade Ib likely to become a threat to the general public in wealthy countries? Maybe - there's evidence that people can be asymptomatic carriers, sexual contact isn't required, and it can spread via respiratory droplets. Remember those COVID-19 6-foot distance precautions? Healthcare workers are probably most at risk. WHO is already recommending standard, contact, and droplet precautions for medical personnel.
I stand corrected. I didnt realize it was a different strain and yes, all my info was from the last outbreak.
If the primary means of contracting is still "sex, kissing, touching" why are children under 15 accounting for up to 69 percent of suspected cases? The implications are more than a bit disturbing.
Touching infected materials is one way to get it. So if the children are doing the laundry or the cooking that could be a risk. And a disease that causes you to itch, and thus scratch, hands touching other items are now a risk.
Children in hospitals are getting it too due to overcrowding, including a 2 week old infant who contracted it due to being put in a hospital room with an (unknown at the time) infected patient.
https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2024-press-releases/newborn-babies-catching-deadly-mpox
Transmission to and among children is consistent with shared living quarters and bedding, as well as respiratory droplets. Reports suggest more respiratory symptoms than in the 2022 outbreak.
There are real problems with getting accurate data. There's no rapid test for mpox, and even symptomatic cases don't always manifest the characteristic skin lesions, especially in children. Given the widespread prevalence of measles and other serious childhood diseases, infected people don't isolate. PCR testing relies on fairly sophisticated equipment that's only available in major urban centers in DRC and neighboring affected countries.
Thank you for going even more in depth!