While a first case of monkey pox has been detected in New Caledonia, the health authorities are revealing additional information on this virus.
- The monkeypox patient in New Caledonia is, as always for this virus, not hospitalized.
- He must remain isolated at home until his lesions on the skin disappear, a sign that he is no longer contagious.
- Another first case of monkeypox has also been detected in Russia.
As the cases increase, the more information there is about monkeypox. This Tuesday, July 12, it was in New Caledonia that a person was diagnosed for the first time on the island. The patient was returning from a trip to Europe.
Fever, skin lesions, fatigue…
This Wednesday, July 13, the Department of Health and Social Affairs of New Caledonia (Dass-NC) therefore issued new data on this disease. And they are quite positive. The first concerns the symptoms. The person with monkeypox in New Caledonia suffered from skin lesions – like blisters – and a fever. In other cases, scientists have also observed swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck, great fatigue or even headaches.
“Monkey pox is less contagious than smallpox and results in milder disease,” can we read on the website of the World Health Organization (WHO). In fact, the serious forms are very rare and, generally, the symptoms and contagiousness disappear after three weeks.
Between 7 and 14 days of incubation
Monkeypox or simian orthopoxvirosis – other names for monkeypox – is a virus that is transmitted to humans from animals or other humans. The latter are contagious as soon as the first symptoms appear and the incubation period ranges from seven to fourteen days.
More precisely, according to Clementin Vignaud, epidemiologist at the Territorial Hospital Center (CHT), “monkey pox is transmitted by prolonged contact with infected wounds or by air via postillions, for example. The contact must be for at least 3 hours and within two meters of the contagious person”.
Post-exposure vaccination for people at risk
To curb the human-to-human transmission of monkeypox, the French government announced on Monday July 11 the extension of vaccination against monkeypox to the most exposed groups, in particular homosexual and trans people with multiple partners.
The vaccine currently available is administered post-exposure, as explained by the High Authority for Health (HAS), in a communicated published on May 24. In this document, the health body recommended “the implementation of a reactive vaccination strategy, that is to say around a confirmed case: adults whose contact with an infected person is considered to be at risk ” must be vaccinated.
