As monkeypox cases continue to be reported across the world, one country has initiated a mandatory quarantine period for those who become infected.
The first mandatory quarantine for monkeypox has been introduced in Belgium, which recently hosted a massive gay pride and fetish festival attended by an estimated 80,000 people in Antwerp.“Those infected with the monkey pox virus must be in isolation for 21 days,” the Dutch publication Standaard reported. “Not high-risk contacts, but they’re best watching over any symptoms. In the meantime, virologist Marc Van Ranst wants to investigate whether the virus can spread airborne.”
The Canary Islands recently hosted the Gran Canaria pride festival, which has been identified as a monkeypox “superspreader” event.
The Gran Canarian pride festival attended by 80,000 from Britain and across Europe is being investigated after being linked to numerous monkeypox cases in Madrid, Italy and Tenerife.Held between May 5 and May 15, Maspalomas Pride attracts visitors from across the continent.It was attended by people who have tested positive for the monekypox virus afterwards, with public health services from the Canary Islands now investigating the any links between the cases and the LGBT+ celebrations.’Among the 30 or so diagnosed in Madrid, there are several who attended the event, although it is not yet possible to know if one of them is patient zero of this outbreak or if they all got infected there,’ a health source told El País.
Human-to-human transmission of the monkeypox virus is thought to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so usually prolonged face-to-face contact is required. Other modes of transmission have included direct contact with body fluids or lesion material. So, transmission via sexual activity is possible, but it has not been in such numbers.
Most of the recent cases of monkeypox in the U.K. and Canada have been reported among attendees of sexual health services at health clinics in men who have sex with men.Regarding this trend, Dr. I. Socé Fall, the regional emergencies director for the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, cautioned:“This is new information we need to investigate properly to understand better the dynamic of local transmission in the U.K. and some other countries.”
There is a suspected case of monkeypox in New York City, though the CDC has yet to confirm.
New York City health officials confirmed Friday that a patient suspected of having monkeypox has tested positive for orthopoxvirus, the broader group of diseases to which monkeypox belongs.In a press release, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDHMH) announced that the patient had been placed in isolation and contact tracing efforts had begun. The agency said Thursday that if the lab test came back positive, it would be sent “be sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] for confirmatory testing.”
World Health Organizations (WHO) are theorizing this particular strain of monkeypox is more readily spread through sexual contact.
David Heymann, chair of the WHO’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential, led a meeting of the group on Friday “because of the urgency of the situation”.Heymann told Reuters the WHO is working on the theory that cases so far identified were driven by sexual contact.“What seems to be happening now is that it has got into the population as a sexual form, as a genital form, and is being spread, as are sexually transmitted infections, which has amplified its transmission around the world,” Heymann said.Heymann, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said experts were likely to give more guidance to countries in the coming days. Health officials in several countries have warned that cases could rise further over the summer.Heymann said the monkeypox outbreak did not resemble the early days of Covid because it does not transmit as easily. “There are vaccines available, but the most important message is: you can protect yourself,” he said.
Personally, after two years of people being stigmatized for catching an airborne virus, I am looking forward to all the woke nonsense about not “monkeypox shaming” infected individuals.
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