HEALTH: Alarm Over Monkey Pox

ALARM OVER OUTBREAK OF MONKEYPOX

For a month or so reports have been coming in regarding a virus that is affecting gay men in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Sweden, with a case detected in the USA and Canada, and most recently, South Korea. Health Minister Joe Phaahla announced on Thursday 23 June that South Africa had identified its first case, a 30-year old man who had not travelled. He also stated that the risk of infection was low, with mild symptoms and appears to be with “men who sleep with men.” A comment that has angered a number of groups and organisations including OUT Africa Magazine, OUT LGBT Well-being, AC2 and political parties such as the EFF, who called it “homophobic and dangerous rhetoric” which could further fuel homophobia, likening these baseless comments as being reminiscent of the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic where HIV was called the “gay plague”. AC2 stressed that “any persons. regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, can acquire monkeypox if they have had close contact with someone infected with the virus.”

Previously, monkeypox, had only ever been detected in four countries outside of western or central Africa, and all of the cases had direct travel links to the continent.

Most of the British and Spanish cases are gay or bisexual men, which officials say is ‘highly suggestive of spread in sexual networks’. The sexuality of patients in other countries has not been disclosed.

However, it is dangerous and incorrect to frame the disease as a “gay disease” as what happened in the early days of the AIDS/ HIV pandemic - it affects everyone regardless of gender, sexuality or age. It is important to reiterate that monkeypox is NOT a gay disease - something some local and European papers are suggesting. It is not a new virus, it is endemic to remote parts of Central and West Africa. It is an emerging zoonotic disease - an infectious disease that is transmitted between species from animals to humans, such as a bite from an infected animal. However, it must be noted that human to human transmission is uncommon but clearly is happening. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) virus, which is similar to human small pox was first discovered in 1958 in monkeys. The first human case was recorded in 1970. British and WHO authorities are looking into how the virus is being transmitted between humans, confirming that first UK case, reported on 7 May, was a patient who had travelled to Nigeria where he is believed to have caught the virus. It is thought that the current outbreak may be transmitted through sexual contact as many confirmed cases have been in gay or bisexual men. Spanish authorities also confirm this, believing all cases having been transmitted through bodily fluids during sexual activity. “All of them are young adult males and most of them are men who have sexual relations with other men, but not all of them,” stressed Elena Andradas, head of Public Health in Madrid, in a radio interview.

Symptoms of monkeypox are fever, muscle ache, headache, chills, swollen lymph nodes and after a few days a papular rash (i.e raised bumps) can be seen on the body. There are also feelings of discomfort and exhaustion ... most patients will recover from the illness within a few weeks.

Although no vaccine has been developed or approved for Monkey pox. Vaccines for small pox are being used to deal with the outbreak as monkeypox is of the same family of viruses. There is however, cause for concern as the virus can be deadly