WHO declares mpox epidemic public health emergency of international concern

[CharonY]

The WHO has (again) declared the rapid spread of mpox across 13 countries in Africa an emergency over fears of a global spread. 

 

Quote

The threat this time is deadlier. Since the beginning of this year, the Democratic Republic of Congo alone has reported 15,600 mpox cases and 537 deaths. Those most at risk include women and children under 15.

“The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern D.R.C., its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general.

 

[StringJunky]

If it comes to pass widely in the west, I am curious to see how many anti-vaxxers will refuse the jab given that this is highly cosmetically visible and can leave scars and skin discolouration.

[CharonY]

A very interesting question. I am curious about that, too. But OTOH I am afraid to see it being tested. I have the creeping feeling that the stupidest response will win out in the end.

[StringJunky]

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

A very interesting question. I am curious about that, too. But OTOH I am afraid to see it being tested. I have the creeping feeling that the stupidest response will win out in the end.

I agree. I think one pandemic is enough to experience. I will happily forsake finding that out if a pandemic can be avoided. There is a vaccine for this, isn't there? To get started with anyway, given the mutations will likely accelerate with increasing exposure.

[iNow]

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

I have the creeping feeling that the stupidest response will win out in the end.

It’s a Chinese hoax being peddled by zionists to steal freedom from second amendment loving patriots using their microchip inserting forced gubmint vaccine 

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, StringJunky said:

I agree. I think one pandemic is enough to experience. I will happily forsake finding that out if a pandemic can be avoided. There is a vaccine for this, isn't there? To get started with anyway, given the mutations will likely accelerate with increasing exposure.

I mean, I think all of us here will have experienced a couple of pandemics (at least within the borders we live in) over the past decades. Though COVID-19 was the most dramatic (in terms of deaths in short amount of time). Others, have been more devastated to other communities. But due to increasing travel, diseases spread globally much more commonly. 

[iNow]

A case showed up in Sweden today. The first known infection outside of Africa. 

[CharonY]

Interestingly recently folks started to wind down surveillance efforts. Great timing.

[iNow]

2 hours ago, CharonY said:

Great timing.

We seem to be leveraging Idiocracy as a user manual 

[CharonY]

Which would assume that someone is still able to read.

[exchemist]

On 8/14/2024 at 10:47 PM, StringJunky said:

If it comes to pass widely in the west, I am curious to see how many anti-vaxxers will refuse the jab given that this is highly cosmetically visible and can leave scars and skin discolouration.

This may be one case where being old helps. I’ve been vaccinated against smallpox, which I gather confers some protection.

[iNow]

On 8/15/2024 at 5:25 PM, iNow said:

A case showed up in Sweden today. The first known infection outside of Africa. 

Pakistan saw its first case a few days ago. Today Philippines reported positive detection. 

[StringJunky]

 

On 8/14/2024 at 10:47 PM, StringJunky said:

If it comes to pass widely in the west, I am curious to see how many anti-vaxxers will refuse the jab given that this is highly cosmetically visible and can leave scars and skin discolouration.

I mentioned this thought on an a FB page mentioning it. A poster says that's ok and won't be a problem for him and most people because it's a gays disease.

Edited August 19 by StringJunky

[CharonY]

On 8/16/2024 at 12:13 AM, exchemist said:

This may be one case where being old helps. I’ve been vaccinated against smallpox, which I gather confers some protection.

Maybe, there are studies suggesting that protection might last decades, but there is always a risk that it drops with time (and in elderly).

16 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

 

I mentioned this thought on an a FB page mentioning it. A poster says that's ok and won't be a problem for him and most people because it's a gays disease.

Because that is exactly how diseases work, of course. I heard similar arguments regarding COVID-19 that it is only risky for the very old and frail and "the fatties". Misinformation and misunderstanding go hand in hand there.

[StringJunky]

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

Maybe, there are studies suggesting that protection might last decades, but there is always a risk that it drops with time (and in elderly).

Because that is exactly how diseases work, of course. I heard similar arguments regarding COVID-19 that it is only risky for the very old and frail and "the fatties". Misinformation and misunderstanding go hand in hand there.

They are also ignorant that with increasing infection increases the chance of more dangerous, more transmissable variants; evolution.

[iNow]

2 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

They are also ignorant that with increasing infection increases the chance of more dangerous, more transmissable variants; evolution.

I heard that the truly ignorant ones are those who take the vaccines, especially when organic foods alone will protect you  /notevenkidding

[CharonY]

23 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

They are also ignorant that with increasing infection increases the chance of more dangerous, more transmissable variants; evolution.

Which especially interesting because we could see that happening in real-time just a few years ago WHEN WE WERE LOCKED UP IN OUR ROOMS/LABS. (Deep breaths).

19 minutes ago, iNow said:

I heard that the truly ignorant ones are those who take the vaccines, especially when organic foods alone will protect you  /notevenkidding

AAAAARGH. 

I guess the true lesson we learned was.. wait what was the lesson again?

[iNow]

34 minutes ago, CharonY said:

what was the lesson again?

People are morons 

[exchemist]

17 hours ago, CharonY said:

Maybe, there are studies suggesting that protection might last decades, but there is always a risk that it drops with time (and in elderly).

Because that is exactly how diseases work, of course. I heard similar arguments regarding COVID-19 that it is only risky for the very old and frail and "the fatties". Misinformation and misunderstanding go hand in hand there.

I see the WHO has been at pains to point out this is not another Covid. The disease seems to be contagious, so won’t be passed without physical contact.

[StringJunky]

2 hours ago, exchemist said:

I see the WHO has been at pains to point out this is not another Covid. The disease seems to be contagious, so won’t be passed without physical contact.

Physical contact can be via objects touched by the infected person if their hands carry the pathogen via body fluids.

Edited August 20 by StringJunky

[CharonY]

2 hours ago, exchemist said:

I see the WHO has been at pains to point out this is not another Covid. The disease seems to be contagious, so won’t be passed without physical contact.

Respiratory diseases are the biggest fear, but I would also point out that creeping health burden, especially if preventable should not be downplayed. I mean, I do understand why they would do that, as the public generally has a mostly binary response to public health threats: headless panic and indifference. Panicking at this point would likely be net detrimental. But OTOH it does allow for spread that could eventually lead into panic again.

Even diseases with very low or non-existent casual transmission, such as AIDS and in recent times increasingly multi-resistant STIs, can spread across the world with tremendous cumulative health burden. 

[StringJunky]

28 minutes ago, CharonY said:

Respiratory diseases are the biggest fear, but I would also point out that creeping health burden, especially if preventable should not be downplayed. I mean, I do understand why they would do that, as the public generally has a mostly binary response to public health threats: headless panic and indifference. Panicking at this point would likely be net detrimental. But OTOH it does allow for spread that could eventually lead into panic again.

Even diseases with very low or non-existent casual transmission, such as AIDS and in recent times increasingly multi-resistant STIs, can spread across the world with tremendous cumulative health burden. 

As we saw with covid, it only takes a few percent extra hospital admissions for health services to become strained to the limit. I think society needs to learn that being solely reactive to health threats could well be disastrous one day, with our increasing global mobility and population densities. Climate change causing an  increasing exodus from the areas that become resource limited and productively barren with atmospherically hostile conditions can only exacerbate those issues.

The increasing trend towards nationalism in the world and isolationist mentality caused by that will only aggravate that exodus.

Edited August 20 by StringJunky

[CharonY]

One point that I forgot to mention- mpox was one of the critical test cases for effective global infection control in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason is that the symptoms are fairly visible and diagnostic, infection rates appear to be relatively low (though there is some uncertainty regarding pre-symptomatic transmission), and there was heightened public health vigilance.

While certain efforts (e.g. wastewater monitoring) has been stepped up, the fact that it it wasn't contained, clearly shows ongoing weaknesses. Also the fact that folks still do not understand that we are literally all in this together, whether we like it or not.

Edit to add: The big issue is that the level  of complacency among public health, politics and to some degree the public (that is somewhat understandable, folks would rather ignore issues and focus on day-to-day). The obvious issue is that being reactive means that we won't do anything before we have to, which in many cases(infectious diseases, climate change) means that the challenge has become so big that it is not easily solvable anymore. So then folks can claim that there is nothing we can do in the first place. It is disappointing that even having worldwide lockdowns is not not enough to create enough will to do think proactively. It also seems to me that folks in public health are a bit burned out by that.

 

20 hours ago, StringJunky said:

As we saw with covid, it only takes a few percent extra hospital admissions for health services to become strained to the limit. I think society needs to learn that being solely reactive to health threats could well be disastrous one day, with our increasing global mobility and population densities. Climate change causing an  increasing exodus from the areas that become productively barren and atmospherically hostile can only exacerbate those issues

Yes indeed. If folks were able to, it would be much better to think in terms of health burden, rather than just deaths. 

[CharonY]

The deadlier version of mpox (clade Ib) has been detected in Thailand. It apparently is spreading mainly through heterosexual sex, which is another difference to the 2022 outbreak (caused by Clade IIb). 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czrgpg127zgo

https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/20240610-mpoxsituationreport.pdf

 

 

 

[jimmydasaint]

Out of curiosity, because I don't know the answer, in one country, for example England, would infections of a locked down public not lead to more milder strains of the infectious agent/virus as the most aggressive strains would not be passed on because of the  mortality rates of the infected?

I am assuming that in a freely mixing population with more strains available due to movement of infected people between countries would lead to the possibility of import of more virulent viral/pathogen strains.

However, surely natural herd immunity would serve to make most people more resistant to the imported more virulent strain due to cross reactivity of white blood cells with the antigens common to the first strain as well as the imported strain.