The study just published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on the current strain of the monkeypox virus shows that patients are showing different symptoms than in the past. Doctors are concerned that the disease could be confused with other diseases, including more common STDs.
Stages of Monkeypox
Initial investigation of the current monkeypox outbreak highlights symptoms caused by the disease – symptoms that differ in frequency and location from those seen in previous outbreaks. This conclusion was drawn after following 54 men who were infected with smallpox between 14 and 25 May 2022 (60% of cases during this period) and who were members of the gay community. The study was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
It is always a headache for doctors to define the exact origin of the infection. In this case, it appears that the patients were infected through sexual intercourse, as 47 out of 52 reported having had sex in the three weeks before symptoms appeared. However, they also said they were unaware that they had been in contact with people who were already ill.
The most common symptom is skin lesions in the anal and penile areas. “The fact that a quarter of patients also tested positive for gonorrhea or chlamydia suggests that transmission of the monkeypox virus in this cohort was through close contacts, such as sexual intercourse,” explains Dr. Ruth Byrne of the National Health Service.
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The study highlights important differences in the clinical picture in this group. Feelings of weakness or fatigue and fever were less common here than in previous studies of monkeypox symptoms. In addition, 18% of patients in this group reported no symptoms before the first skin lesions appeared. Doctors in the UK are concerned that monkeypox could be confused with common STIs (sexually transmitted infections) that cause symptoms such as herpes or syphilis. To avoid overlooking cases, they suggest that the list of symptoms of smallpox presenting as an acute infection with fever be adapted to the new findings.
In addition, these data have a clear limitation: they were obtained only in patients in gay communities and may not be generalizable to the entire population. Men who have sex with men were the first to be affected by the virus, but it can infect everyone. In fact, three women have now been infected and the source of infection is under investigation. The new WHO report indicates 5,322 confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide, mainly in North America and Europe.
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