MPox: psst it's an STD

an STD of course. 

 “The priority is to rapidly interrupt the transmission of the virus. We’re collaborating with partners in support of countries to reinforce outbreak control measures and ensure that communities are central to ongoing efforts to effectively end these outbreaks,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. 

 pattern of transmission varies across the region, with the spread of new variant (known as clade 1b) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo linked to transmission through sexual contact and high population movement, while in South Africa most of the cases are among people identifying as men having sex with men.

are these guys gays, or men who are working in mines or factories who had to leave their families and wives behind in the tribal areas, so have no other access to normal sex? 

Transmission in West and Central Africa is associated with the 2022 global outbreak. However, further analysis is required to better understand the patterns of transmission to refine the response to the outbreak.

so they are tracing sexual contacts, which is of limited use of course.

one problem is that some of these strains are mild so only with the rash in the genital areas which are not usually seen.

If this is true, then there could be a lot more cases, and of course it means that the reported death rate could be a lot lower than reported.

I will have to try to find more reports on this: but of course when the WHO reports this as a big threat at a time when the WHO is trying to get every country agree to letting the WHO override national laws, and at a time when a lot of us distrust the WHO who lied a lot about covid.

Sigh.

so what about anti viral treatments etc?

Article here.

 

As of 29 August 2023, a total of 89,596 confirmed cases of Mpox (monkeypox) have been documented across 114 countries worldwide, with 157 reported fatalities. The Mpox outbreak that transpired in 2022 predominantly affected young men who have sex with men (MSM). While most cases exhibited a mild clinical course, individuals with compromised immune systems, particularly those living with HIV infection and possessing a CD4 count below 200 cells/mm3, experienced a more severe clinical trajectory marked by heightened morbidity and mortality.

so again, those with HIV get sicker with it. Well, duh. Again this means the high mortality cited by authorities might be artificially high, meaning for normal people not only is the risk low (skin contact where abrasions let lesions spread it to you in non sexual contact), but if you don't have HIV and you aren't malnourished you probably won't die. (our poorer patients in Africa got very sick and had slow wound healing due to their low protein diet)

interestingly, the old small pox vaccine gives protection.

However, considering that the smallpox vaccine seems to offer approximately 85% protection against Mpox, individuals previously vaccinated against smallpox appear to be less susceptible to infection

the article discusses various anti virals and also the immune globulin for severe cases. Of course, more recent articles in the news suggest none of these anti virals are better than placebo, but since anti virals must be started early in the course of treatment, and given the fake data in covid where studies were distorted because the anti virals or ivermectin etc was given after the person had been sick for days, one does wonder about such things.

and since ivermectin has action against many viruses, has this been used at all in this epidemic? I can't find any articles about it.