Who needs a vaccine for Monkeypox? Is the disease deadly? How to control its spread? Health experts answer FAQs.
Experts answer some of the most common FAQs around Monkeypox. (Creative Commons)
While the World Health Organisation (WHO) is meeting this week to discuss if Monkeypox should be declared a public health emergency, doctors in India have said people have gone into panic mode after two positive cases emerged in Kerala.
Health authorities said people should not worry about this virus so much.
They explained that the two cases reported so far are not of local origin, and that the patients have a travel history.
Dr Gagandeep Kang, renowned microbiologist and professor at CMC Vellore, told South First, “I don’t think that for Monkeypox, we need to worry very much. We should be watchful.”
Senior virologist Dr Jacob John, former professor at CMC Vellore, said, “For a population of 1.45 billion, finding two cases with travel history should not be very worrying.”
He added: “In a few other countries, the number of cases is very low and the disease is seen to require intimate contact. There is no reason to worry about it.”
Dr Shahid Jameel, noted virologist and former chief of INSACOG, told South First that human-to-human transmission of Monkeypox is not very efficient.
Examples of Monkeypox rashes (UK Health Security Agency)
“This is not a virus that can spread like Sars-CoV-2. So far, it has been seen only in people who have had intimate contact [with those afflicted with Monkeypox],” he explained.
Kang said though Monkeypox can also be transmitted by the respiratory route, such a mode of spread is very minimal.
“This is an infection that spreads from person to person and requires very close contact. It is not a respiratory pathogen,” she explained.
Experts have asked public health authorities to focus on contact tracing.
The best way to control Monkeypox, Kang said, was to figure out who the contacts of the infected person were and be in a position to track them.
“The ability to detect, test, and trace becomes very important. Monkeypox can be controlled by an appropriate level of contact tracing,” she explained.
Kang added that the disease needed to be tracked as anything that could get it into the population or subpopulations and let it continue to circulate was a concern for public health authorities.
The review paper Monkeypox Disease Outbreak (2022): Epidemiology, Challenges, and the Way Forward in Indian Paediatrics by epidemiologist Dr Chandrakant Lahariya and his team notes that “the case fatality rate of Monkeypox ranges from 0–11 percent.”
WHO dispatches monkeypox diagnostic kits from its Dubai hub (WHO)
It is believed that the strain of Monkeypox that is currently circulating the world does not have a very high case fatality rate.
“It doesn’t put a lot of people into hospitals, doesn’t kill people. Is it transmissible? We need to track that and try and stop it from spreading. Not everyone has to take the vaccines for Monkeypox,” Kang told South First.
Doctors explained that the fatality rate of this virus was very low and most people recovered in two weeks.
While the patient needed to be isolated, it was a self-limiting disease, they added.
Kang added that while there are drugs that work against Monkeypox, they need to be used very minimally.
Absolutely not, say experts in reply to this Monkeypox FAQ. A vaccine for Monkeypox is needed for only those who are at risk.
Kang said, “If you are someone working in a lab dealing with Monkeypox, then you need to get vaccinated.”
“If there are people who have a lot of unprotected sex, then they may need the vaccine given that Monkeypox has been detected in such people, even though it is not yet clear if it is a sexually transmitted disease,” she added.
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