It was previously thought that monkeypox was transmitted almost entirely by people who were already sick, although presymptomatic transmission has not been ruled out and some routine tests have detected asymptomatic cases. Monkeypox, a relatively mild viral disease endemic to several countries in west and central Africa, exploded around the world earlier this year, with outbreaks in dozens of countries where it had never been seen before. Since then, there have been nearly 78,000 confirmed cases and 36 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although cases have peaked in many countries, this week the World Health Organization declared the outbreak still a global health emergency. The virus is known to spread through close contact and causes symptoms such as fever, body aches and often painful pus-filled skin lesions. WATCHES | Monkey Pox Recovery:
What it’s like to recover from monkey pox
A Toronto resident shares his experience recovering from monkeypox, while officials and advocates say more support is needed for patients during the long weeks of isolation. To find out more about how monkeypox is transmitted in Britain, a team from the UK’s Health Security Agency used routine surveillance and contact tracing data for 2,746 people in the country who tested positive between May and August. Their average age was 38, and 95 percent of patients reported being gay, bisexual, or men who had sex with men. The researchers analyzed the “serial interval” — the time from the onset of symptoms in the first case to the onset in a linked case — as well as the incubation period, the typical time from exposure to the virus to the onset of symptoms. Using two statistical models, they found that the median serial interval was shorter than the median incubation period. This indicated that “significant” transmission occurred before symptoms appeared or were detected, the researchers wrote in the article published in the British Medical Journal. Four days was the longest period before the onset of symptoms that transmission was detected, and the team said that up to 53 percent of transmission may have taken place before the onset of symptoms. The study raises questions about the global response to monkeypox, including whether asking people to self-isolate when symptoms appear is enough to stop the virus from spreading.
Urgent questions
Many wealthier countries have vaccinated high-risk populations to contain the outbreak, but vaccines are limited and unavailable in Africa. Independent experts said the findings could have major implications for global infection control if supported by other studies. “These are urgent questions that need answers,” said Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. Other scientists said the work was robust but needed clinical data before it could be called definitive or applied globally. “It’s an important part of the transmission puzzle,” said Jake Dunning, a senior fellow at the Pandemic Science Institute at the University of Oxford, “but I personally want to see it come together with other pieces.”
title: “Monkey Pox Can Spread Before Symptoms Start Study Finds " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-14” author: “Marie Lewis”
It was previously thought that monkeypox was transmitted almost entirely by people who were already sick, although presymptomatic transmission has not been ruled out and some routine tests have detected asymptomatic cases. Monkeypox, a relatively mild viral disease endemic to several countries in west and central Africa, exploded around the world earlier this year, with outbreaks in dozens of countries where it had never been seen before. Since then, there have been nearly 78,000 confirmed cases and 36 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although cases have peaked in many countries, this week the World Health Organization declared the outbreak still a global health emergency. The virus is known to spread through close contact and causes symptoms such as fever, body aches and often painful pus-filled skin lesions. WATCHES | Monkey Pox Recovery:
What it’s like to recover from monkey pox
A Toronto resident shares his experience recovering from monkeypox, while officials and advocates say more support is needed for patients during the long weeks of isolation. To find out more about how monkeypox is transmitted in Britain, a team from the UK’s Health Security Agency used routine surveillance and contact tracing data for 2,746 people in the country who tested positive between May and August. Their average age was 38, and 95 percent of patients reported being gay, bisexual, or men who had sex with men. The researchers analyzed the “serial interval” — the time from the onset of symptoms in the first case to the onset in a linked case — as well as the incubation period, the typical time from exposure to the virus to the onset of symptoms. Using two statistical models, they found that the median serial interval was shorter than the median incubation period. This indicated that “significant” transmission occurred before symptoms appeared or were detected, the researchers wrote in the article published in the British Medical Journal. Four days was the longest period before the onset of symptoms that transmission was detected, and the team said that up to 53 percent of transmission may have taken place before the onset of symptoms. The study raises questions about the global response to monkeypox, including whether asking people to self-isolate when symptoms appear is enough to stop the virus from spreading.
Urgent questions
Many wealthier countries have vaccinated high-risk populations to contain the outbreak, but vaccines are limited and unavailable in Africa. Independent experts said the findings could have major implications for global infection control if supported by other studies. “These are urgent questions that need answers,” said Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. Other scientists said the work was robust but needed clinical data before it could be called definitive or applied globally. “It’s an important part of the transmission puzzle,” said Jake Dunning, a senior fellow at the Pandemic Science Institute at the University of Oxford, “but I personally want to see it come together with other pieces.”
