Monkeypox cases under investigation in Canada as outbreak spreads in Europe, U.S.

[AntiFascist]

Source: CBC News

Health officials in Quebec are investigating more than a dozen cases of suspected monkeypox in Canada, after U.S. and European health officials confirmed rising cases of the rare infectious disease — suggesting a wider outbreak may be happening globally.
...
The U.S. confirmed its first case of monkeypox in a man who recently travelled to Canada, after European health officials confirmed more than two dozen cases of the rare infectious disease this week, suggesting a wider outbreak may be happening globally.
...
UKHSA said four of the cases detected in Britain self-identified as gay, bi-sexual or other men who have sex with men and has urged men who are gay and bisexual to be aware of any unusual rashes or lesions and to immediately contact a sexual health service.

The virus is known to spread through surface transmission or close contact but has not previously been characterized as a sexually transmitted infection — though it can be passed on through direct contact during sex.
...

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/monkeypox-canada-quebec-europe-us-outbreak-1.6458523

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. If I was to guess, it's probably more a promiscuity thing than a gay thing in particular

given this isn't a blood-borne pathogen but spreads thru close contact.

But hey, I'm not the UKHSA, so what do I know?

[AntiFascist]

2. Here's what the CDC recommends...

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/clinicians/infection-control-hospital.html

because of the theoretical risk of airborne transmission of monkeypox virus, airborne precautions should be applied whenever possible.

There is speculation that something mutated causing it to be more transmissible.

Link to tweet

[MOMFUDSKI]

3. A locust plague

looks like a piece of cake these days.

[tavernier]

24. Sort of...

They are edible and very nutritious.

[Warpy]

4. Looks a lot like smallpox, very low death rate, which seems more due to

secondary skin infection leading to sepsis.

No word on whether or not it produces the scarring seen with smallpox.

It looks like another emerging disease from central Africa. There is no known treatment, and people are ill for two to four weeks.

If it really starts to spread, looks like we'll have to dust off the old quarantine signs.

[AntiFascist]

5. According to this it is fatal in Africa in 1 out of 10 cases, more likely among children...

but maybe this is due to conditions in Africa?

Link to tweet

[Warpy]

7. One in ten, and that's likely without adequate supportive treatment

like keeping an eye on the fluid shift that looks like it happens in a bad case.

Smallpox was 30% fatal, which is why it was such a priority to end that disease. It also disfigured survivors.

Even with a lower fatality rate, this idisease is no cakewalk, nothing that can make you ill for a month is.

[wnylib]

9. Most Americans have been vaccinated

against smallpox and due to the similarities between them, the smallpox vaccination might provide some protection against monkeypox, according to some online medical sites that I found.

[Hekate]

11. Actually, we now have a virgin population of several generations....

Since the smallpox vaccine was discontinued in the US in 1972, most people younger than 50 have never been vaccinated at all.

The vaccination will protect you for about 3 to 5 years, then decreases. So everybody over 50 also no longer has immunity.

It was a dreadful disease which could kill or leave survivors scarred all over. It was the first ever eradicated by vaccination, a tremendous public health success. Still, it felt very strange to me when my own children, born in the 1970s, were not vaccinated.

[wnylib]

12. I am familiar with smallpox history,

including early crude vaccination efforts. I have both Native American and colonial New England ancestry.

[electric_blue68]

17. Hooo boy ...

Including the heinious action of giving the Plains Tribes small pox infected blankets. 😔

[wnylib]

18. My tribal ancestral history is much

farther east, in NY state.

But Buffalo has a suburb, Amherst, named for a promoter of the infected blanket bioweapon.

Native people in the East were more often infected directly, through interactions with infected colonists.

[electric_blue68]

19. Ah, I figured you yourself had more upper western NYS... I was referring...

to the fact that smallpox was used as a bioweapon against Native Americans.

Amherst, huh? Damn.

Umm...one of the ?Six Nations for your heritage?
(hopefully not mixing that name up from the Southern Eastern tribes)

[wnylib]

20. Seneca and Mohawk, through my grandmother,

who was Seneca and English on one side of her family and Mohawk and English on the other side. She married a man who was German and Native American (unknown tribe).

But, she was my father's mother, so since the Haudenosaunee are matrilineal, that leaves me out.

[electric_blue68]

21. Got it....

Just found out a Texas friend of decades who has some ancestors from the Mayflower also has Choctow ancestry.

Me I'm a 2nd Gen Immigrant.

[wnylib]

22. 2nd generation immigrant - that would be

my maternal heritage. My mother's mother was 3 years old when she arrived in the US with her parents from the German Empire. My mother's father was conceived in the German Empire, but was born in Buffalo 2 weeks after his parents arrived.

[herding cats]

16. True. I've never been vaccinated for smallpox, for example.

The majority of the population in the US is under 50-years old and was never vaccinated against smallpox at this point.

[womanofthehills]

25. Some studies - smallpox vaccine can protect for a lifetime

Our longitudinal data support this argument; a single vaccination elicits functional antibody that remains stable over the lifetime.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610468/

[Hekate]

27. That's what I learned as a child -- then I look it up this week, and oops. So I hope the old info is

…correct.

[Warpy]

13. Military might still get vaccinated

Good thing there's a population of cattle acting as a cowpox reservoir in central Europe. I have a feeling we might need a return to vaccinatipn, meaning giving people mild cowpox to prevent the more serious pox viruses. It would take a much shorter time to do that than gearing up a new smallpox eradication program.

I couldn't find anything on scarring after monkeypox. You know all those ladies in old paintings with peaches and cream complexions? Either they were badly pockmarked in real life or about to die when the next wave of the disease came through.

[wnylib]

14. I still have two scars from chicken pox.

They are barely visible now and were never a disfiguring problem. One is a slight indent on my nose. The other is an indent just on the edge of one eyebrow.

[Warpy]

15. I had one on my forehead that lasted through my teens

and then just sort of went away when I wasn't vain enough to pay attention to it any more.

Smallpox scars were different, as are chicken pox scars when the disease occurs in adulthood. They are disfiguring.

[womanofthehills]

23. Actually, many reports also coming out saying this is a milder monkey pox strain

With a one in 100 death rate.

[Warpy]

26. Good, he 1 in 10 was the Central African strain.

The one in West Africa is 1 in 100 fatalities.

I'm wondering it it's like cowpox and confers immunity to smallpox. Russia has kept their smallpox cultures alive, which is why we have, and a nutbar like Putin will probably release it in the next big war.

It would be great if a large number of people could just thumb their noses at him.

[hamsterjill]

6. Dumb question.

But would having had a smallpox vaccine (even if decades ago) provide any help? I read that monkey pox is in the same family of disease.

[AntiFascist]

8. Great question. A recent vaccination does work, but only within 3 years of being vaccinated...

Link to tweet

[hamsterjill]

10. Thank you for the info!

[womanofthehills]

29. Other studies say smallpox vaccine can last a lifetime.

Aug 19, 2003 (CIDRAP News) – A study of more than 300 people who received smallpox shots suggests that the resulting immunity to smallpox may last up to 75 years, according to a report published online yesterday by Nature Medicine.

"We found that more than 90% of volunteers vaccinated 25-75 years ago still maintain substantial humoral or cellular immunity (or both) against vaccinia, the virus used to vaccinate against smallpox," states the report by Erika Hammarlund and colleagues at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

The researchers found that levels of vaccinia-specific antibodies (agents of humoral immunity) remained "remarkably stable" for as long as 75 years after vaccination. Cellular immunity—levels of T cells active against vaccinia—declined slowly after vaccination, but T-cell responses could still be detected after 75 years, according to the report. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2003/08/protective-effect-smallpox-vaccine-may-last-decades

[hamsterjill]

30. Wow. Good to know.

If this becomes widespread those of us vaccinated might give the younger generations first dibs on vaccines. And needle phobes like me might be okay!!!

[AntiFascist]

31. According to this study (2007) childhood vaccination does not provide complete protection...

against smallpox variants:

Monkeypox-Induced Immunity and Failure of Childhood Smallpox Vaccination To Provide Complete Protection

...

Our findings from this study suggest that remote (30 years prior) vaccinia (smallpox) vaccination does not provide complete protection against systemic OPX infection (even against a relatively mild disease variant)

...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2168110/

[AntiFascist]

28. U.S. Buys Millions of Monkeypox Vaccines As Massachusetts Man Infected

https://www.newsweek.com/monkeypox-cased-uk-massachusetts-case-vaccine-ordered-us-1708075

The U.S. government has ordered millions of doses of a vaccine that protects against monkeypox. The news follows the first confirmed case in the states—a man in Massachusetts—following an outbreak in the U.K.

The order amounts to a $119 million order for Jynneos vaccines, which are used for the prevention of both smallpox and monkeypox. It was announced by biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic, which makes the vaccine, on Wednesday.

The order will convert bulk vaccines, which have already been made and invoiced under previous contracts with the U.S. government, into freeze-dried versions which have an improved shelf-life.

I think it's important to know that this outbreak seems to be spreading mostly among "men who have sex with other men". I would be concerned about it spreading further during upcoming Pride celebrations, especially after people have been cooped up during the past 2 years.