Expert: Monkeypox probably unfold by sex at 2 raves in Europe

LONDON (AP) — A number one adviser to the World Well being Organization described the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox in developed international locations as “a random event” that appears to have been caused by sexual activity at two latest raves in Europe.

Dr. David Heymann, who formerly headed WHO’s emergencies division, told The Related Press that the main principle to clarify the unfold of the disease was sexual transmission at raves held in Spain and Belgium. Monkeypox has not beforehand triggered widespread outbreaks past Africa, where it is endemic in animals.

“We know monkeypox can spread when there's shut contact with the lesions of someone who's infected, and it seems to be like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,” mentioned Heymann.

That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, the place individuals are primarily infected by animals like wild rodents and primates and outbreaks have not spilled across borders.

Well being officials say many of the recognized cases in Europe have been amongst men who have intercourse with men, but anyone may be infected by shut contact with a sick particular person, their clothing or bedsheets. Scientists say it will likely be tough to disentangle whether or not the unfold is being driven by intercourse or merely shut contact.

“By nature, sexual activity entails intimate contact, which one would count on to extend the probability of transmission, whatever an individual’s sexual orientation and irrespective of the mode of transmission,” mentioned Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial Faculty London.

On Monday, the European Centre for Illness Prevention and Management Director Andrea Ammon mentioned “the likelihood of additional unfold of the virus via shut contact, for instance during sexual activities amongst individuals with multiple sexual companions, is taken into account to be high.”

To this point, WHO has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in a dozen international locations including Canada, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the U.S. and Australia.

On Monday, Denmark introduced its first case, Portugal revised its whole upwards to 37, Italy reported one further infection and Britain added 37 more circumstances.

U.S. well being officers said Monday they knew of 1 confirmed case, within the state of Massachusetts, and four possible circumstances — two in Utah, one in Florida and one in New York Metropolis. All had been men who had traveled exterior the U.S.

Germany has 4 confirmed instances linked to publicity at “occasion occasions ... the place sexual exercise came about” in Spain’s Canary Islands and in Berlin, in keeping with a authorities report back to lawmakers obtained by the AP.

Madrid’s senior health official stated Monday that the Spanish capital had 30 confirmed instances. Enrique Ruiz Escudero said authorities are investigating potential links between a latest Gay Delight occasion in the Canary Islands, which drew some 80,000 individuals, and instances at a Madrid sauna.

The monkeypox cases thus far have been gentle, with no deaths reported. Sometimes, the virus causes fever, chills, rash and lesions on the face or genitals. Most people recover inside a number of weeks with out requiring hospitalization.

Vaccines towards smallpox, a related illness, are efficient in stopping monkeypox and some antiviral medicine are being developed. In recent years, the illness has been fatal in as much as 6% of infections.

Heymann chaired an urgent assembly of WHO’s advisory group on infectious disease threats on Friday to assess the outbreak and mentioned there was no evidence to recommend that monkeypox had mutated right into a extra infectious type.

The U.N. company stated the outbreak is “a highly unusual event” and mentioned the fact that cases are being seen in so many alternative international locations suggests the virus may have been silently spreading for some time. The company’s Europe director warned that festivals and events could accelerate unfold.

Still, at a public session on Monday, WHO officials described the outbreak as “containable” and cautioned in opposition to stigmatizing affected teams, saying the disease can infect anyone.

The agency said the instances appeared to be linked to a monkeypox virus that was first detected in exported cases from Nigeria to Britain, Israel and Singapore in 2018 and 2019.

Authorities in Britain, Spain and Portugal have mentioned most of the cases recognized so far had been in young males whose infections were picked up once they sought assist for lesions at sexual well being clinics.

Heymann, who can also be a professor of infectious ailments at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, stated the monkeypox outbreak was seemingly a random event that may be traceable to a single infection.

“It’s very doable there was someone who acquired contaminated, developed lesions on the genitals, hands or some other place, after which spread it to others when there was sexual or shut, physical contact,” Heymann hypothesized. “After which there were these international events that seeded the outbreak world wide, into the U.S. and other European international locations.”

He emphasized that the disease was unlikely to set off widespread transmission.

“This is not COVID,” he said. “We need to sluggish it down, nevertheless it doesn't spread within the air and we have now vaccines to protect in opposition to it.”

Heymann mentioned research needs to be carried out quickly to determine if monkeypox could be spread by folks without symptoms and that populations at risk of the disease ought to take precautions to protect themselves.

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Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, and Frank Jordans and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, contributed to this report.