Is it true that monkeypox was transmitted to humans in 2017?

In May 2022, the world began to spreadmonkeypox - in early June, about 900 people were infected with the disease. The fact that the disease appeared on the territory of the UK, Canada, Australia and other countries was very alarming for many scientists. The fact is that earlier this disease was found exclusively in the tropical rainforests of Africa, and did not penetrate into other parts of the world. There was a danger of the start of a new pandemic, so airports began to carefully check the health of passengers and, if at least some symptoms were found, send them to quarantine. Recently, British scientists studied the DNA of a strain that spread around the world and found that it was transmitted between people as early as 2017, but no one noticed it. During all this time, the virus has mutated - has it become more dangerous than before?

Scientists have studied the DNA of the monkeypox virus and made important conclusions

Content

• 1 Monkeypox virus in brief
• 2 Spread of monkeypox
• 3 How does the monkeypox virus mutate?
• 4 Vaccination against monkeypox
• 5 Does chickenpox give immunity to monkeypox?

Briefly about the monkeypox virus

Monkeypox is caused by a virus thatbelongs to the Poxviridae family. Its main carriers, contrary to the name, are not primates, but rodents. It is transmitted from animal to human through close contact or interaction with feces or other bodily secretions. In many ways, the disease is similar to smallpox - the symptoms are almost the same, but the course is milder. Recently, only 3–6% of cases of infection ended in death.

Photograph of the monkeypox virus

First case of virus transmission from an animalman was recorded in 1970. Patient zero was a nine-year-old boy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After that, the disease was occasionally found in other inhabitants of Africa, but the virus did not go beyond this continent.

Spread of monkeypox

Until now, researchers believed that the new strainThe virus originated in West Africa in 2022 and only then appeared in Europe. However, the study of its genetic code showed that the "new" virus appeared several years ago and has simply not attracted much attention until now.

Monkeypox is native to Africa

As of June 6, there are about900 people with monkeypox virus. Scientists studied the virus found in them at the genetic level and found that it has much in common with the viruses that caused small outbreaks of smallpox in Africa between 2017 and 2019. Despite the fact that the new strain has up to 47 mutations, it is highly likely to be a “descendant” of the causative agent of previous outbreaks.

Monkeypox virus used to circulate only in Africa, but has recently spread beyond it

How does the monkeypox virus mutate?

It is noteworthy that 47 mutations is a lot.Previously, scientists were confident that the monkeypox virus acquires about one mutation per year. Now it turned out that it mutates very quickly, which also causes great concern. At the moment, everything is fine, and evolution does not benefit the virus - mutations have made it less infectious. But scientists believe that at some point the monkeypox virus may become better able to spread. Therefore, all countries need to remain vigilant and be ready to take action against the spread of the disease.

It is important for countries to prevent the importation of monkeypox

It is believed that the less the virus circulates betweenpeople, the less likely it is to get a mutation to increase infectivity. Therefore, humanity now needs to stop the wave of infections by all means. This can be done by quickly detecting infected people and sending them to quarantine. Even better is to vaccinate the population, but at the moment there is no special vaccine against monkeypox.

Also, researchers are very afraid of the spread of bird flu. Here are the reasons.

Monkeypox vaccination

Right now the only option is to usesmallpox vaccine because it is thought to reduce the severity of the disease. If the virus really starts to spread strongly, people at risk will be vaccinated first: frontline doctors, border guards and emergency workers. After that, the turn may reach people with chronic diseases, because for them the disease can cause complications.

There is no specific vaccine against monkeypox, but there is a vaccine against smallpox

In 1960, vaccination helped prevent a smallpox epidemic in Moscow. Do you think that at that time there was the same panic as during the coronavirus pandemic? And here it is not.

Does chickenpox give immunity to monkeypox?

Many people are probably interested in the answer to the question- Does the fact of transferring chickenpox gives immunity from monkeypox? Without a doubt, chickenpox does not provide protection against smallpox, because they are fundamentally different diseases. As noted above, the causative agent of monkeypox is a virus from the Poxviridae family. And chickenpox occurs after the penetration of the Varicella Zoster virus from the Herpesviridae family into the body.

Varicella zoster virus

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If you want to know more about smallpox and its problems,which she brought to people, read this material. In general, write in the comments what do you think about the next problem that humanity has faced? You can join our chat in Telegram.