the world is still dealing with what appears to be the tail end of the covid19 pandemic only to find
that another disease monkeypox is appearing in countries where it's not normally found
there have been hundreds of cases now several of them deadly so people are wondering what the
risk is from this disease how it's transmitted and to what extent it might affect our lives
to tell us more tonight we're joined by an expert on the subject dr simon clark associate professor
in cellular microbiology at the university of redding in england he joins us via zoom dr clark
great to see you thank you so much for making time this morning your time you're welcome well
uh let's see nigeria's had one death from monkey pox while congo's had at least nine so uh the who
in view of all of this is raised amongst monkey pox's risk category to moderate uh what does this
disease do give us the basics how dangerous is it to those who catch it so it's a disease that
can cause a systemic infection that really just makes people feel very unwell you've seen on those
pictures that you just aired those lesions those pox on people's skin and they can be very painful
and they can scar as well um but it can also the virus can also suppress aspects of your immune
system which means that you're far more likely to get infected by the the bacteria and viruses
that we all carry around with us on a day-by-day basis and that can cause problems as well so there
are lots of different symptoms that can cause people to feel ill and can ultimately lead to
someone's death okay well the who says uh it can't completely rule out a monkey pox pandemic and of
course that's the kind of thing that's on people's minds right now but it says it's not concerned
about the chance of that happening sounds like it's very unlikely uh why would that be
because it doesn't spread very quickly i mean everybody thinks when you hear the word pandemic
their thoughts run immediately to clovid19 which is a virus that spreads between people
very very easily this doesn't it although you can there is a respiratory route transmission
it's much more difficult than than clovid19 and most transmission seems to occur by skin
skin contact or coming into contact with material like bedding or clothes that somebody who's been
infected has uh has been wearing or been laying in so it's shedding of skin shedding a virus
that causes a problem and if you rub up against that in some way uh you're you're more likely to
pick it up you're more likely to to contract the virus so it spreads very slowly and it although
the the version of the virus which is certainly a problem in the uk at the moment or a small problem
um only has a one percent fatality rate but that's in context of an african healthcare
system that's where it's been calculated it's not in the context of a european or developed
world healthcare system so i would expect it to be even lower so we don't quite know about that
rate but we do see it spreading as you say slowly but are there any existing vaccines that would
protect us against monkey pox well there is a specific monkey pox vaccine in development
but i think the media hopes run to using the smallpox vaccine which of course has not been used
in decades because uh um smallpox is extinct but we still have the vaccine we can still deploy it
there appears to be some cross protection between smallpox and monkeybox monkeypox is much much less
virulent than smallpox it's much less of a problem but the two viruses are related
and the the smallpox vaccine seems to provide some protection against monkeypox
right i don't think they vaccinated against smallpox in the u.s since the 70s
um but uh are there any particular risk factors uh in terms of actually contracting monkey pox
uh well it's making people very ill and i've just been reading in the uk
that the authorities are explaining to medics that there is quite a spectrum of severity of disease
as one might expect um so i think we don't really have a a good understanding of what the risk
factors are what makes people who are more ill that way we just know that there is a variation
on this we don't really understand why okay in terms of how people are responding to but what
about places where it's contracted or or the circumstances in which uh the virus is spread
well close contact with somebody who is infected ultimately of course it has been brought into the
uk and in other countries via via international travel it didn't just spontaneously arrive
but of course there is a chain of transmission the problem is that um health authorities have
hit the two been unable to link that back to to the initial importation into this country so no
i don't think you can point to any one environment or set of conditions which leads to transmission
other than coming into contact with somebody who's got it okay right well um the health authorities
here in korea met today about monkey pox and they decided to give it an official risk designation uh
level one the lowest level though uh how is the uk health security agency if that's who's in charge
dealing with it has it issued any guidelines and what would you advise in terms of guidelines
it's it's um advising people of what the symptoms are to be vigilant it points out the risk is low
and i would agree with that i think that's that's a perfectly reasonable assessment um and to uh if
you do have the virus even if you're uh getting very mildly and not particularly unwell to isolate
yourself for a few weeks and that's really all that can be done there are antivirals being used
i believe on the sickest patients in hospital not everybody who has it needs to go to hospital
and i think they're also deploying the vaccine to ring fence try and put a
fire wall in between people who've got the virus and people they might have infected
well hopefully uh this will remain under control and uh professor clark uh we thank you so much for
making time to join our program tonight really appreciate it