London (UK)- A leading adviser to the World Health Organization described the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox in developed countries as “a random event”. Explained by risky sexual behaviour at two recent mass events in Europe.
Dr David Heymann, who formerly headed WHO’s emergency department, said the leading theory. Which explains the spread of the disease was sexual transmission among gay and bisexual men at two raves, held in Spain and Belgium. Monkeypox has not previously triggered widespread outbreaks beyond Africa, which is endemic in animals.
“We know monkeypox spreads if there is close contact with the lesions of someone infected. And it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,” said Heymann.
That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical spread pattern in central and western Africa. Where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates. And outbreaks have not spread across borders.
To date, which has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in a dozen countries. Including Britain, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the U.S. and Australia.
Madrid’s senior health official said that the Spanish capital had recorded 30 confirmed cases. Enrique Ruiz Escudero said authorities are investigating possible links between a recent Gay Pride event in the Canary Islands. Which drew some 80,000 people, and cases at a Madrid sauna.
Heymann chaired an urgent meeting of WHO’s an advisory group on infectious disease threats on Friday to assess the ongoing epidemic. There was no evidence suggesting monkeypox might have mutated into a more contagious form.
Monkeypox typically causes fever, chills, rash, and lesions on the face or genitals. It can be spread through close contact with an infected person or their clothing or bed sheets, but sexual transmission has not yet been documented. Most people recover from the disease within several weeks without requiring hospitalization. Vaccines against smallpox, a related illness, are also effective in preventing monkeypox, and some antiviral drugs are being developed.
The disease can be fatal in about 10% of infections, but no deaths have been reported in the current cases.
WHO said the outbreak is “atypical”. And noted that cases in so many different countries suggest the disease may have been silently spreading for some time. The agency’s Europe director warned that as summer begins across the continent, mass gatherings, festivals, and parties could accelerate the spread of monkeypox.
Other scientists have pointed out that it will be difficult to disentangle whether sex itself or the close contact related to sex has driven the recent spread of monkeypox across Europe.
“By nature, the sexual activity involves intimate contact, which one would expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, whatever a person’s sexual orientation and irrespective of the mode of transmission,” said Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London.
