Reported cases of monkeypox peaked in August and have since been trending downward, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why?
“People took it seriously,” said Dr. Richard Friend, a family medicine physician and dean of the College of Community Health Sciences. “In groups and geographic areas where this virus was spreading, people did a good job of vaccinating, and that really helped control the spread of the virus. We’re at a much better place with this virus than we were with COVID.”
In addition, monkeypox doesn’t spread as easily as other viruses. “Transmission is by close, sustained physical contact with an infected person,” Friend said during a Mini Medical School presentation in September. Mini Medical School is a series of lectures provided each semester through a collaboration of The University of Alabama OLLI program and CCHS, which operates University Medical Center.
And with monkeypox part of the same virus family as smallpox, public health experts believe that people who have been vaccinated against smallpox, which is a sizeable portion of the U.S. population, have protection against monkeypox.
Monkeypox is endemic to West and Central Africa, but as of Sept. 14, 2022, there have been 25,613 total cases in the United States and one death. Globally, there have been 68,017 cases. Alabama has had 115 cases to date.
Monkeypox was first discovered in research primates in 1958 and that’s likely how the virus got its name, Friend said.
A monkeypox infection is marked first by symptoms that start within three weeks of exposure – fever, chills, headache, respiratory issues and a general fatigue – followed by a rash that ultimately produces painful lesions. A person diagnosed with monkeypox is considered infectious until the lesions have scabbed over and fresh skin has grown underneath, a process that could take up to four weeks, Friend said. “This hangs around a while, from development of lesions to the time when lesions are gone.”
Monkeypox is mostly spread through close, personal and intimate skin-to-skin contact. Transmission can also occur via shared fabric such as clothes, bedding and towels if scabs from lesions that are still infectious remain in the clothes and linens that another person then uses.
People infected with monkeypox should isolate until their rash has fully healed, Friend said.
Monkeypox is rarely fatal. Friend said two vaccine exists to prevent or mitigate infection from monkeypox, and there are medications for those with confirmed cases of the virus. Health experts recommend vaccination at risk for severe disease, including those who are immunocompromised and/or taking medications that suppress their immune systems. Medication can produce such side effects as headache, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting.