Study .. How does the outbreak of monkeypox differ from previous cases?
Amman Today
publish date 2022-07-02 11:39:23
A study published by a group of scientists in the Lancet said that the symptoms of monkeypox during the current outbreak in Britain differ significantly from previous cases in other countries.
The study included 54 patients who visited four sexual health clinics in London and were diagnosed with monkeypox within 12 days in May 2022. The presence of infection was determined using a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
The scientists recorded data on patients’ travel history, sexual relations and clinical symptoms. Patients were advised to social isolation. Thereafter, their condition was regularly assessed through telephone examinations.
It turned out that all but two of the patients did not know that they had been in contact with a carrier of the disease. None of them mentioned traveling to sub-Saharan Africa, and it turns out that many of them have visited other European countries recently. All 54 mentioned are men who have engaged in same-sex sex. Average age is 41 years. Almost all of them reported having at least one new sexual partner in the three weeks prior to the onset of symptoms, as well as inconsistent condom use during the same time period. More than half of the patients had more than five sexual partners in the 12 weeks before monkeypox was diagnosed.
All patients had skin lesions and other symptoms. 49 subjects had at least one skin lesion on the genital or perianal skin. The disease was mostly mild, most of which were cured during isolation at home. However, five people required hospitalization due to pain or infection in the skin lesions. Their condition improved in hospital, where they spent an average of seven days.
Dr Ruth Byrne, from the Chelsea NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘A quarter of patients have been shown to have contracted gonorrhea or chlamydia at the same time as monkeypox infection which allows for the assumption that transmission of monkeypox virus in this group occurred from close skin-to-skin contact. as in the context of sexual intercourse.
The study also revealed important differences in the clinical features of this group of patients compared to previous outbreaks. In particular, symptoms of fatigue, weakness and fever were less common. Ten out of 54 patients had no symptoms before the onset of the skin lesions.
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