National Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, has called for public vigilance after Gauteng recorded a case of Monkeypox.
In a statement on Monday, spokesperson for the Health department, Foster Mohale, said the case was first tested by Lancet Laboratory which was later confirmed by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) which immediately notified the department.
What is Monkeypox?
Monkeypox is a viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus which is a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae; this virus is associated with diseases like smallpox, cowpox, horsepox, and camelpox.
The symptoms of monkeypox are similar to that of smallpox, which was declared eradicated in the 1980s.
It was first identified in human beings in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two years after smallpox was eradicated from that region.
As per the records of the World Health Organisation (WHO), since 1970 most cases of monkeypox have been reported from rural, rainforest regions of the Congo Basin, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is now considered to be endemic.
Monkeypox virus was first identified in a colony of cynomolgus monkeys held at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen in 1958, says a research report. “In 1966 monkeypox infection was introduced into the zoo at Rotterdam. Here the first animals affected were giant anteaters from South America, but the disease spread to various species of apes and monkeys. The viruses isolated from these animals were found to be similar and to represent a species of orthopoxvirus that had not been described before 1958,” report adds.
Monkeypox is caused by two distinct clades of the monkeypox virus: the Congo Basin and the West African clades. Clades are the group of organisms that originate from a single ancestor. For example, coronavirus is a clade within the family of coronaviridae.
Of the two genetic clades of monkeypox virus, the Congo Basin is more virulent and transmissible.
Monkeypox symptoms
The symptoms seen during a monkeypox virus attack can be categorised in two periods: invasion period and skin rash period.
The incubation period of monkeypox is 6 to 13 days usually. The incubation period is the duration between the infection and when the symptoms start appearing in an individual.
During the invasion period which is within the first 5 days of the infection, the patient experiences fever, intense headache, lymphadenopathy (swelling of the lymph nodes), back pain, myalgia (muscle aches) and an intense asthenia (lack of energy).
1-3 days after the fever, the patient will experience rashes on the skin. “The rash tends to be more concentrated on the face and extremities rather than on the trunk. It affects the face (in 95% of cases), and palms of the hands and soles of the feet (in 75% of cases). Also affected are oral mucous membranes (in 70% of cases), genitalia (30%), and conjunctivae (20%), as well as the cornea,” says a WHO report.
“The rash evolves sequentially from macules (lesions with a flat base) to papules (slightly raised firm lesions), vesicles (lesions filled with clear fluid), pustules (lesions filled with yellowish fluid), and crusts which dry up and fall off. The number of the lesions varies from a few to several thousand. In severe cases, lesions can coalesce until large sections of skin slough off,” the report adds.
Monkeypox: How is it transmitted?
Monkeypox is transmitted to humans from wild animals. It is transmitted from an infected human to a healthy human, as well, by contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding.
“The route of infection can be percutaneous, through bites or scratches of infected animals or during manipulation of infected material, or via respiratory or mucosal routes,” says a research report.
“It is important to emphasise that monkeypox does not spread easily between people and the overall risk to the general public is very low”. Research studies have established that human to human transmission of monkeypox virus accounts for 10–30% of cases.
In the African region, the spread of the infection is related to the hunting, skinning, preparing, and eating of infected rodents and monkeys and in the USA outbreak the chief reasons were importation of infected prairie dogs to be commercialized as pets.
Monkeypox virus: What are the risk factors?
Though monkeypox is said to be a self-limited disease, severity of the infection depends on several factors like age, exposure, patient health status and nature of complications.
Young children are most susceptible to this viral attack.
Eating inadequately cooked meat and other animal products of infected animals is a possible risk factor.
Many research studies have found that the possible risk factors of monkeypox within a household are sleeping in the same room or bed, or using the same plate or cup.
