now let's look at questions
around monkeypox, a rare illness
that has been found and a number
of countries around the world,
including the U.S.
In light of the coronavirus
pandemic, many are asking
questions about what they need
to know.
John yang get some answers.
>> Worldwide, there have been
roughly 200 confirmed and
suspected cases of at least a
dozen countries.
In the United States, the first
case was identified last week in
a Massachusetts patient who had
recently been in Canada.
There is a small number of
presumed, though not confirmed
cases, in New York City,
Florida, and Utah.
Dr. Peter hotezz is Dean of
Baylor college of medicine in
Houston.
Thanks so much for being with
us.
Let's start off with the basics.
What is monkeypox?
What are its symptoms, and how
is it transmitted, how does it
spread?
>> Well, monkeypox belongs to a
family of viruses known as
orthopox viruses, similar to
smallpox.
B-- much less severe in
terms of human disease.
It is transmitted by close
physical contact or through
droplets or potentially
respiratory contact, usually
into make contact.
Produces less severe disease
than smallpox.
It begins with fever, back ahce,
headache and then one of the
distinguishing features is lots
of swollen lymph nodes,
particularly around the neck and
also elsewhere in the body.
And then a day or two later, it
is associated with a
characteristic rash, of first a
vesicular rash, similar to
chickenpox and then it becomes
posturals -- postules.
>> It sounds a little bit like
covid with close contacts and
droplets.
>> No, it is actually much more
difficult to transmit than
covid.
Covid is an aerosolized virus.
You can have some degree of
error solicitation with
monkeypox but it is primarily
with into mint face-to-face
contact.
In this case we are seeing high
rates of infection, higher rates
O-- infection among
gay ansexual man.
And not through sexual
transmission but it is skin to
skin and into make contact but
not through conventional sexual
transmission.
>> What else do we know about
this outbreak and how can should
Americans be about it?
>> I think it's important to
keep in mind the numbers.
As you pointed out around 200
cases, around 250 cases, half of
them in Spain and Portugal, both
suspected and confirmed cases
then the U.K.
We are talking about 25 cases in
Canada.
Four or five cases confirmed or
suspected in United States.
Those numbers will grow but it
is unlikely we will be talking
anything close to what we have
seen with covid-19.
And there is a lot of good news
to think about.
One is it's not nearly as
transmissible, you have a longer
incubation period that gives you
time to investigate the
contacts.
You can trace the contexts,
because if you have the
infection you have a
characteristic vesicular rash.
And, because the vaccines and
drugs used to treat or prevent
smallpox also treat monkeypox,
the U.S. Government for the last
20 years since the founding of
Barta has been stockpiling
vaccines for smallpox and antii
iral drugs.
So if the numbers start to
increase and we have to
vaccinate populations we can
move on that pretty quickly.
For all those reasons we are not
looking at anything near the
magnitude or the concern of
something like covid-19.
>> How unusual is this operate?
It is not usually seen in the
United States.
>> Tt's right.
The unusual piece is that it has
been multiple foci in European
countries, particularly in
southern Europe and the U.K. But
also in Germany and Belgium and
elsewhere in North America.
I think that is the really
striking part.
And just by coincidence of
probably -- it probably became
an individual in the gay or bi
sexual community became infected
and then according to the world
health organization potentially
passed it on through sexual
networks and that seems to be
where it is spreading but we do
not have a lot of details.
It's not as if those 250 cases
we have seen publicly the
demographics of those
individuals.
We're hearing that it is among
predominantly men 20 to 50 years
of age, but we do not know that
for certain.
So, the unknown is whether we
will see secondary transmission
in European and North American
countries after that.
And that's really important.
It's really critical that we be
very careful how we talk about
this disease to avoid social
stigma.
This is an infectious disease
that can be managed, can be
treated and can be prevented,
whether or not the U.S.
Government decides to ploy the
smallpox vaccine and which when
they will use because one of
them that we have is a
nonreplicating virus.
If you're concerned about its
use in individuals who are HIV
positive, that might be the
preferable vaccine, although we
only have 1000 doses of that
one, the stockpile as opposed to
the tens of millions of the
older, more conventional
vaccine.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.