Investigation

I attended a luncheon yesterday which discussed a variety of public health issues facing certain regions of the world. One thing that was mentioned in brevity was rising incidences of Mpox, referred to before as monkeypox. I remember first hearing about it and thinking how awful the disease sounded, so I decided to do a little research about and below is a snapshot of what I found.

First of all, it was somewhat comforting to find that there is a vaccine that can help prevent the virus. Additionally, it seems that it is not quite as deadly, although one's general immune well-being plays a role in being able to recover which usually takes around two to four weeks.

Mpox, is distant cousins of the variola, cowpox, and vaccinia viruses as a member 'of the Orthopoxvirus genus in the Poxviridae family.' It is characterized by a number of symptoms such as 'a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes, fever, headache, muscle ache, back pain, and low energy.' It should be noted that these lesions can be present all over the body, including more sensitive regions making relieving one's self painful. However, because many of these symptoms are not unique to this disease, it can be mistaken for other conditions like chicken pox, measles, herpes, scabies, or STDs. However, there are instances in which other conditions might also be present that bear close resemblance to Mpox. Utilizing a PCR test is the main laboratory methodology of ruling out other similiar conditions. Obtaining a sample from a lesion is ideal, but if one does not have this, samples can be collected through swabs of either the throat or anus. Blood testing is not very effective due to the difficulty in differentiating antibodies of orthopoxviruses.

This disease is spread in similar manners to other infectious disease such as through sexual intercourse, kissing, or being in close quarters with individual. It can also be transmitted during pregnancy or delivery of the child. One can also catch these disease from animals.

Typically one will exhibit signs of the condition within seven days, but sometimes this could take as long as three weeks to manifest.

As mentioned there is a vaccine that has proven to be helpful. In certain instances, it can be given after someone has already has encountered it. Currently, in the works are antiviral medications which are still being evaluated, but due to the crises in some parts have already been allowed to be in use.