The outbreak of monkeypox is ‘no reason to panic’, according to professor Chantal Bleeker-Rovers of Radboudumc. She does expect that the disease will ‘require a lot of effort’ from RIVM, the GGDs ‘and the entire healthcare chain’. The professor, who specializes in infectious disease outbreaks, estimates that the chance of stopping this outbreak is greater than with the corona virus.
Bleeker-Rovers argues why on Twitter. She argues that the virus that causes monkey pox is mainly caused by intensive contact and only after people have developed symptoms. The bumps on the skin caused by the disease are ‘very visible and recognizable’.
Effective vaccine
An effective vaccine is also available against monkeypox: vaccines that work against smallpox can also fight this virus. If administered in time to someone who has had contact with a patient, the vaccines can also prevent symptoms or at least lower the risk of serious illness, the professor writes. On Friday, RIVM announced that a first infection has been detected in the Netherlands. In other European countries, dozens of people have recently contracted the disease.
To stop the transmission, it is important that people are aware of the complaints it causes and then go into isolation. The first symptoms appear after 5 to 21 days. Before the blisters and bumps appear on the skin, people suffer from complaints such as fever, headache, back pain and swollen lymph nodes. Bleeker-Rovers advises people who have been in contact with a suspected patient who has the disease, or who have been somewhere where infections have developed, such as the Darklands festival in Belgium, to contact a doctor with these symptoms.
monkeypox
The internist-infectiologist prefers to speak of monkeypox, to avoid confusion. The Dutch term monkey pox is often used in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Suriname to indicate impetigo. That’s a very different condition. The monkeys to which the name refers are also not correct, says the professor. “The virus has only been identified for the first time in monkeys imported from Africa, but is mainly found in rodents.”
The professor points out that children, pregnant women and people with a disrupted immune system are at greater risk of complications and death. “Most people recover on their own after 2-4 weeks. They remain contagious until the scabs have dried.”
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