health

Studies to see if mutations behind monkeypox spread: WHO

8 Comments
By Robin MILLARD

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Separating viral isolates into clades is just the first step in investigating the roles of the mutations, and since the virus is usually classified as BSL3 pathogen not all places can do the research necessary to clarify if the mutations are important for transmission or not. Fortunately reverse genetics for poxviruses are well stablished so it should not take too much to have the first preliminary reports about it.

The WHO has called for help from the public in coming up with a new name, with a dedicated website where anyone can make suggestions.

It will be interesting to see the new name, it is about time to correct the misleading current one since the disease is not spread to humans mainly by monkeys as it wrongly indicates. Compared with the terribly inadequate "monkeypox" even the joke submissions like "Poxy Mcpoxface" don't sound that bad.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Wobot,a toddler tested positive for the virus in Harris County Texas,where the best medicine in the world is practice,you gonna blame the infant,you can easily contract it from a infected person, making your sushi roll

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

However, the disease is found most frequently in rodents, and the current outbreak is being spread through human-to-human close contact.

According to the CDC, the disease is not most frequently found in rodents.

*Monkeypox was discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research. Despite being named “monkeypox,” the source of the disease remains unknown. However, African rodents and *non-human primates (like monkeys) might harbor the virus and infect people.

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/about.html

It will be interesting to see the new name, it is about time to correct the misleading current one since the disease is not spread to humans mainly by monkeys as it wrongly indicates.

Now it is spreading mainly human to human. Like varicella; which is known as chickenpox-for which we see no WHO, woke, name-change campaign..

So no need to get in an uproar about changing the name of a disease discovered first in monkeys, one that is carried by monkeys, and one that can be spread to humans by monkeys.

The monkeypox virus is spreading mostly through close, intimate contact with someone who has monkeypox.

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/index.html#:~:text=The%20monkeypox%20virus%20is%20spreading%20mostly%20through%20close%2C,majority%20of%20cases%20in%20the%20current%20monkeypox%20outbreak.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Seems pretty obvious it's human behaviour given the very specific demographic it's affecting...

That is the thing about science, it requires evidence to make conclusions, not just consider things obvious. In this case there are infections where the patient is not from the very specific demographic you talk about.

I wonder why the immune response from people in these specific areas seems incapable of suppressing this virus all of a sudden.

There is no problem with the immune response from the patients, the pathogen is only doing the same it has always done. Thinking that this is a human immunity related outbreaks only comes after getting evidence of this.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

According to the CDC, the disease is not most frequently found in rodents.

The CDC have measures explicitly calling for the disease being transmitted by rodents, not by monkeys

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/veterinarian/animal-officials.html

It also says the US outbreaks until now have been related to rodents, it even originated an importation ban for rodents.

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/outbreak/us-outbreaks.html

This also includes the WHO, the global authority on public health that include rodents as the most likely reservoir from the disease.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox

These are all arguments that clearly point out to the disease being a zoonosis mainly coming to humans from rodents, not monkeys, and justify a change of name to make it less mistaken. this is completely appropiate and even desirable from a scientific point of view.

Now it is spreading mainly human to human. Like varicella; which is known as chickenpox-for which we see no WHO, woke, name-change campaign.

The WHO is not the origin of the campaign but experts concerned with the negative meanings that can be related to the name that is also imprecise. What the WHO is doing is reacting to these experts saying a new name is necessary.

If you think chickenpox is also a misnomer you can initiate your own campaign and if you gain the support of the experts of the field as in this case you can ask the WHO to do the same.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

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