Thread by @michaelghead

The UK #monkeypox outbreak is very interesting. A 🧵of some key points
- typically very limited human-to-human transmission, needs very close contact
- therefore, transmission is nothing like #COVID19

- to add to other #publichealth voices, very very low risks to wider general public
- if close contact, then public health teams will follow up
- monkeypox can be very nasty (case fatality rates upwards of 1%, albeit most outbreaks in areas where healthcare is v limited)

- UK has several specialist facilities for handling unusual tropical medicine cases. NHS is very good at this.
- Name is a bit misleading. First identified in monkeys, but small animals like rats/other rodents a more common host (typically in parts of West/Central Africa)

- interesting hypotheses that less #smallpox vaccination means lower population immunity against the related-but-different monkeypox virus, and thus outbreaks may become more common.
- that's very much tbc, but is plausible and interesting

- imported cases do indicate a wider burden of disease elsewhere in the world.
- we should be giving more consideration to understanding local and global implications of #LassaFever, #monkeypoxvirus, #Ebola and other rare but serious pathogens.
(/end)

@threadreaderapp unroll

To add, and follow up on another thread (with useful context) & this point around sexual contact

https://twitter.com/teozka/status/1526505302262173698

No evidence that #monkeypox is a sexually-transmitted infection. But, prolonged close contact required for intimacy or sexual activity may allow transmission

We do see similar with other infections, for example scabies (cc @jackiecassell) .
That is a skin infection transmitted by mites. The clinical presentation is sometimes in the groin, & the disease itself can be transmitted via the close contact of sexual or intimate activity.

Here, with #MonkeypoxVirus , implications around potential sexual contact between cases are not so significant, in that we know close contact is required for transmission, and therefore that is possibly what happened here

However, the social dynamics around transmission of infectious diseases means this may be useful consideration for the #publichealth teams involved in the contact tracing process. (/end_of_thread_for_now)

Well now independent.co.uk/news/health/mo…
#monkeypox confirmed in Portugal and possibly Spain. Suggestion is sexual networks, and "characteristics of the eight suspected [Spain] cases point towards fluid contact"
So not respiratory transmission, if so.

More to come on this story, then. Biggest European outbreak of monkeypox.
Contact tracing and outbreak investigation crucial, in understanding if any links between the countries, or multiple importations with subsequent community transmission etc...