IAS Current affairs - Monkey Pox

Monkey Pox

Context:

  • A recent study has found that people can be infected with monkeypox without showing any of the typical or atypical symptoms.

What is Monkey pox?

  • It is a viral zoonotic disease (transmission from animals to people) known as monkeypox because it is a pox-like illness among monkeys. It is widespread in Nigeria.
  • It is brought on by the monkeypox virus, a species of the Orthopoxvirus family.
  • The virus’s original host is still unknown. However, several reports of the illness in animals exist.
  • Monkeys and apes, a variety of rodents (including rats, mice, squirrels, and prairie dogs), and rabbits are among the animals known to carry the monkeypox virus.
How is it transmitted?
  • Direct contact with an infected animal’s blood, body fluids, or cutaneous or mucosal sores results in primary infection. Eating meat from diseased animals that has not been prepared properly also increases danger.
  • Close contact with infectious respiratory tract secretions, an infected person’s skin lesions, or recently contaminated objects with patient fluids or lesion materials can all cause human-to-human transmission.
  • Other methods of transmission include vaccination and placental transfer.
Challenges and Way Forward:
  • Increased illness awareness, better surveillance and response, and avoidance of contact with wild animals, particularly monkeys
  • Animals that may have interacted with an infected animal need to be confined, handled with regular safety measures, and monitored for signs of monkeypox for 30 days.
  • It is critical to shift focus to other illnesses. Due to Covid-19, fewer endemic disease cases are being documented since fewer people are seeking medical attention in hospitals.

 Source The Hindu