I recently noted that new research points to sex between men as the primary mode of transmission fueling the global monkeypox outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) may soon reclassify monkeypox as a sexually transmitted infection.
…[T]he WHO received a formal proposal to change the classification and not “turn a blind eye” to the spread from Prof Rossi Hassad, an epidemiologist at Mercy College in New York and a statistician.He argues there is now “compelling evidence” that the virus is spread through sex and that, although there are also other means of transmission, it would be “more precise to say monkeypox is also a sexually transmitted infection”.To formally recognise the virus as an STI would, Prof Hassad says, “facilitate effective and early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention”. He added that it would also allow the development of tailored “health education messages and campaigns” while also “reducing group-specific stigma”.”Failure to [call monkeypox an STI] can significantly hurt efforts to stem this outbreak, which has the potential to soon become a challenging pandemic,” his proposal reads.
If this goes forward, it might indicate that valuable lessons were learned during the response to covid….about neglecting real data in favor of social justice and political narratives. I certainly hope so, though I remain highly skeptical.
Adding fuel to my skepticism comes news from my home state. The California Department of Public Health is now using the name MPX to describe monkeypox.
Citing concerns about stigma associated with the name of the illness, CDPH uses monkeypox only on “first use” in written documents or correspondence. The second time the illness is referred to, the department uses MPX. As for conversations, “CDPH uses M-POX (em-pox) in spoken language,” CDPH told KRON4.CDPH states it has been using MPX for approximately a week. In June the World Health Organization announced it would be changing the name of the disease. This decision came after a paper authored by more than 30 scientists around the world stated that the name monkeypox can be discriminatory and stigmatizing.
To wrap up monkeypox news for today, a student at Penn State University has tested positive for monkeypox. Public health officials are now concerned that the coming fall semester will spark outbreaks of the virus.
Health officials at the university said the unnamed student is now in isolation and that their close contacts were being traced.The individual attends the University Park campus in central Pennsylvania, the college’s largest with some 46,000 undergraduates, but they reside off-campus.The student received the positive result on August 13, about a week before the start of the fall term on August 22.There are mounting concerns the return of colleges and universities could help drive the viral outbreak, with the latest case marking the second at a college this month. On Thursday, the University of Maryland said a staff member had a presumptive case and that more infections will likely be detected in the coming weeks.
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