Monkeypox: 14 cases in Campania. For Alessandro Perrella, director of the UOC for Emerging and Highly Contagious Infectious Diseases at the Cotugno hospital in Naples, there is no need to be alarmist and a sense of responsibility is needed
“We have so far 14 cases of monkeypox in Campania, we are organizing an ad hoc check at Cotugno, but first of all we tell everyone to have a personal responsibility, getting checked if they see vesicles on their body, especially if in the genital areas”, explained Perrella.
Which then recommends: “Especially abroad, wear masks in crowded places where social distancing is not guaranteed.”
I 14 confirmed cases so far in Campania They are all Italian patients and reside in our region, but only a percentage of them had risk factors such as trips abroad in European countries, while others did not travel in the period immediately preceding the onset of the disease.
None of the cases can be traced back to the same family unit and all the patients, except one who was observed and then discharged, are in home isolation and in good health.
“It is a disease that does not cause particular concerns from the point of view of clinical manifestations – Perrella explained – it can be easily managed on an outpatient basis and, should it present itself with particular symptoms, we have two antivirals available at a European level that could be recovered if the need arises.
We also have a vaccine whose necessity, at the moment, should be discussed with scientific data in hand because the diffusion that is being recorded has clinical characteristics that are not particularly significant".
According to the infectious disease specialist “There is no need to be alarmist. It is a disease that must be carefully observed and the WHO is doing so: monkeypox has, in fact, been defined as a global emergency. It must be carefully evaluated because the more a disease is left free to circulate, the greater the possibility that it can adapt better and better to the host and create small genomic diversities.
The protection that those who have had the smallpox vaccine and are over 50 years old have, for example, could be a little less effective. It certainly needs to be monitored but, at this time, those who are infected do not have such dramatic or serious clinical manifestations that could cause concern”.
Monkeypox: How to Know if You're Infected?
But what are the symptoms to monitor to understand if we have been infected by monkeypox? “Blisters, tenderness in the perivesicular area or around the blisters, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, headache and fever: symptoms that are common to any type of viral disease”, explained the director of the UOC Emerging and Highly Contagious Infectious Diseases at the Cotugno hospital in Naples.
Perrella also has a forecast for the coming weeks: “After the summer there could be an increase in cases following the holiday period, but we are not facing the beginning of a pandemic like Covid: it is a global health emergency of a virus that should not exist and that is actually spreading a little too much and that can cause concern only because, in a globalized world, a large diffusion is possible and can represent an infectious disease problem”.
What to do in case of suspected infection? “My advice is a sense of responsibility – has explained – if I see the appearance of blisters on my body, I must self-isolate and go to a specialist who can ascertain and verify, also with laboratory tests, whether the blisters are attributable to MonkeyPox or some other infectious disease. If I see blisters appear and I have also had a fever, I must stop and, if I have planned social events, if the swab test is positive, I must isolate myself”.
The course of the disease is highly variable. “We are recording subjects who heal in seven days and others who take 14 days to have the vesicles crusted. Patients with all the vesicles crusted are considered healed.”
Is it possible to avoid contagion? “Monkeypox is a disease that is also transmitted by fluid particles with even less close contact than Covid. The ideal would be to avoid close contact with people who potentially may have been exposed to the virus, but this is impossible to know a priori.
However, where we have had contact with people and develop blisters and fever, we need to ask for help from specialists. For those who go abroad, I recommend continuing to use the devices that are used against Covid such as the use of a mask especially in places where it is not possible to observe the safety distance ", concluded the infectious disease specialist.
Article published on 26 July 2022 - 19:02
