“Monkey pox is not a coronavirus,” the WHO has already warned. It is not a similar virus, it does not spread in the same way and it does not affect the same groups.

“It will neither lead to mass isolation nor vaccination of the entire population,” experts say.

Both monkeypox and COVID-19 are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted from animals to humans and then from one person to another. That’s how many similarities there are.

The disease that caused most of 2020 pandemic, which has killed millions of people, in terms of the type of virus that causes it, the way it spreads, the affected population and the existence of a vaccine, bears little resemblance to this new epidemic, which so far is spreading mainly in African countries, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“These are very different diseases. The viruses belong to two very different families,” explains Daniel López Acuña, epidemiologist, former senior official of the World Health Organization and professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health, to the Spanish news portal RTVE.es. The virus that causes monkeypox is DNA and “mutates more slowly” than SARS-COV-2, which caused COVID-19, which was RNA.

He says that in 2019 The pathogen first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan was “a new and highly aggressive virus that was characterized by high mortality and for which there was no vaccine.”

It is transmitted through close contact, not through aerosols

One of the main differences is the method of transmission. The coronavirus was transmitted by aerosols, so it was possible to infect many people in poorly ventilated enclosed spaces, while the monkeypox virus is usually transmitted through close contact with an infected person, so transmission may be slower.

The WHO has made it clear: “monkey pox is not a coronavirus.” “Based on what we know, monkeypox is mostly spread through skin-to-skin contact, including sexual contact,” says the organization’s director for Europe, Hans Kluge.

The two diseases can also be distinguished based on the population most affected. The coronavirus has preyed on the elderly or those with a history of respiratory disease, while the latest variant of monkeypox, which prompted the WHO to declare an international health emergency, is spreading mainly among children.

The existence of a vaccine will help prevent “mass closures”

But if anything has fundamentally changed between the two viruses, it’s that the smallpox vaccine has come along. According to López Acuña, the fact that there was no injection for the coronavirus, which had such a high death rate, “forced drastic measures of closure and restriction of movement to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths.”

The former director of WHO’s Health Action in Crisis states that “this is not a disease that requires mass isolation or vaccination of the entire population.” It also helps that in some countries many older people are vaccinated against smallpox – Spain, for example, had vaccinations compulsory until 1979. – and it protects them from smallpox.

European and Spanish health authorities so far reject the need for universal vaccination and recommend vaccination only for vulnerable groups, such as people who have risky sex or some healthcare workers. They also do not recommend carrying out controls at airports, as was done during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to López Acuña, such control “would not make any sense” because monkeypox “can have an incubation period of up to three weeks”, so an infected but asymptomatic person can go unnoticed.

“We gained a lot of experience. We are ready.”

Experts in Spain agree that the country is ready for the possible detection of cases of this new variant in the country – so far the only cases registered in Spain are related to 2022. the resulting variant. Spain has half a million doses, which can be divided into up to five intraepidermal punctures, for a total of two million. “We have a very structured, very coordinated care system. If such a case occurs, we will know what we have to do,” said Isabela Portillo, representative of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology, in a Spanish television (TVE) program.

Epidemiologist Juan José Badiola, director of the Center for Encephalopathies and New Infectious Diseases, agrees with this. “In 2022 we have had many cases [Ispanija buvo Europos šalis, kurioje užregistruota daugiausia atvejų]so we gained a lot of experience. I think the Spanish system is perfectly prepared to detect and act,” he assured.

Vaccination in Africa is critical to limiting the spread of the virus

But there is also agreement that the best solution is to help Africa with vaccines and resources, because the epicenter of the crisis, the Democratic Republic of Congo, is at war, the health system is very weak, and even more cases could lead to a global spread of the virus. “We must be in solidarity also for our own interests, because what is a problem there today will become a problem here tomorrow,” emphasizes Mr. Badiola.

“We need to arm ourselves with vaccines and invest in surveillance systems, but we must not forget that developing countries also need vaccines,” says epidemiologist Amos Garcia, member of WHO’s European Standing Group.

Remembering the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. López Acuña asks not to repeat the same mistakes that were made in 2022, when the monkeypox outbreak first occurred. “Rich countries stockpiled vaccines, and Africa had neither the vaccines nor the economic capacity to purchase them.”

The EU and the United States announced the first aid to the countries of this continent, although they promised to send doses of 175 thousand, respectively. and 50 thousand — far short of the doses needed to tackle the crisis, which African health authorities say are about 10 million.

D. López Acuña regrettably emphasizes that “a lot is missing to organize global coordinated vaccine production that favors and distributes it where it is most needed, and we do not have mechanisms to strengthen epidemiological surveillance in all countries.” “It’s the exact opposite of what happens to us when we get into military conflicts, where weapons production escalates and spending is unlimited. Here, we do not understand that this is one of the main strategic actions for the health of humanity,” he concludes.

lrt.lt / https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20240822/mpox-distinta-covid-solidaridad-africa/16223979.shtml