WHO recommends gay, bisexual men limit sexual partners to reduce transmission

The World Health Organization on Wednesday recommended that gay and bisexual men limit the number of sexual partners to protect themselves from monkeypox and help slow the transmission of the rapidly spreading virus. .

WHO monkeypox expert, Rosamund Lewis, said men who have sex with men are the group most at risk of infection today. About 99% of cases are men, and at least 95% of them are men who have sex with men, Lewis said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is important for public health authorities to engage the community of men who have sex with men to reduce transmission of the virus and to care for those who are infected. while at the same time protecting human rights by combating stigma and discrimination.

“For men who have sex with men, this includes reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering having sex with a new partner, and exchanging money,” says Tedros. contact details for any new partners so they can be followed up if needed,” Tedros said.

Tedros has called on social media platforms, tech companies and news organizations to oppose harmful information, which he warns will only fuel the outbreak.

“Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus and can cause outbreaks. As we have seen with Covid-19 misinformation and this information can go viral. quickly online,” said the head of WHO.

According to WHO figures, more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported across 78 countries. About 10% of monkeypox patients have been hospitalized for pain control from the disease. According to WHO, 5 deaths have been reported in Africa.

WHO declared a global health emergency in response to the outbreak over the weekend as cases increased rapidly. The current outbreak is very unusual because the virus is spreading widely in Europe and North America, where the virus is not normally found. Historically, monkeypox spread at low rates in remote areas of West and Central Africa, where rodents and other animals carried the virus.

Europe is currently the epicenter of the global outbreak, reporting more than 70% of smallpox cases in monkeys. According to WHO and CDC data, about 25% of monkeypox cases have been reported in the Americas, with the US being the epicenter of the outbreak in the Western Hemisphere.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3,500 cases of monkeypox have been reported across 46 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico. The US has the second highest number of monkeypox cases in the world, after Spain.

WHO and CDC scientists say monkeypox is mainly spread through skin-to-skin contact during sex. Lewis said the virus would have a greater chance of spreading if people didn’t take precautions by limiting the number of sexual partners and having sex anonymously.

“If there were no intervention in a situation of frequent skin-to-skin contact, perhaps in the context of multiple partnerships or exposure to anonymous partners, it would be a situation without intervention, where Lewis virus said.

In the past, people with monkeypox on average passed the virus on to less than one other person, which is why previous outbreaks did not spread widely. But Lewis said an individual with monkeypox could transmit the virus to more people now because global immunity has weakened as smallpox vaccination has become much less common. Monkeypox is in the same family as smallpox, but it causes a milder illness.

Experts cannot yet conclude whether monkeypox represents a new type of sexually transmitted infection, according to Andy Seale, a WHO adviser specializing in sexually transmitted diseases. It’s also unclear whether condoms help reduce the risk of infection, says Seale, because monkeypox, which is spread by physical contact, closely resembles herpes.

“The real important part is focusing on the close, intimate, prolonged personal contact that occurs during sex as the important mode of transmission,” says Seale. Scientists in Spain and Italy have detected monkeypox DNA in a patient’s semen sample, although it remains unclear whether the virus is actually spreading that way.

Although monkeypox is mainly spread by sexual contact, anyone can get the virus through close contact. This includes hugging and kissing within a household, for example, as well as shared towels or contaminated bedding. There have been cases of women and children contracting the virus during the current outbreak, although transmission appears to be low in the broader community at the moment.

Monkeypox can also be spread through respiratory droplets when infected people have lesions in the mouth, although this requires long-term direct interaction. Lewis said the outbreak can still be contained if people limit their exposure now.

“It’s very important for anyone who has monkeypox, so that they can protect anyone else living in the home or anyone else they may come into contact with,” Lewis said. “Family transmission is how this was first detected, and family transmission can start to happen in some cases.”

According to the US CDC, most people with smallpox recover in 2-4 weeks. But the virus that causes the rash can be very painful. In the past, monkeypox started with flu-like symptoms and then progressed to a rash that could spread throughout the body.

But monkeypox symptoms in the current outbreak are unusual. Some people develop the first rash, while others develop a rash without any symptoms of a red rash. Many people develop a localized rash on their genitals or anus.