What's wrong with monkeypox?

The lack of epidemiological surveillance adds to the fact that the vaccine doses received are insufficient.

In one month the monkey pox It has multiplied the number of cases by five, doubled the number of countries with infections and led to a declaration of a global emergency. Experts consulted by maintain that epidemiological surveillance fails but also the vaccine doses received are insufficient.

"The isolation of the sick is not being done very well and neither is the contact tracing," says the vice president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology (AEV), Fernando Moraga-Llop, who insists that vaccines are another issue to be solved since with the 5.000 doses received so far in Spain, where there are more than 3.000 cases, contacts cannot be vaccinated.

Moraga-Llop believes that the international alert decreed by the WHO, when 16.000 cases were reached in 75 countries,s, it is "necessary and appropriate" but maintains that it arrives "a little late and with few vaccines."

Although it is evident that monkeypox It does not have the severity of covid-19, meets the characteristics of international expansion, says the vice president of the AEV who defends administering the third generation vaccine against monkeypox to those who have had contact with infected people and to the population at risk.

By ages, The vaccine is recommended to be administered to the population between 18 and 45 years old. From 18 years of age, according to the technical sheet and the limit of 45 is in relation to the last case of smallpox in 1977, it is understood that those born before that year received the classic vaccine and are protected.

Moragas-Llop adds It should be administered within the first four days of contact exposure, giving it later only decreases the severity of the disease.

In short, he says, it is not about vaccinating the entire population because it is not necessary and in the event that it is necessary to prioritize due to a shortage of sera, the recommendations that set by the health authorities.

More vaccinations

For the president of the Spanish Society of Immunology (SEI), Marcos López Hoyos, the international health emergency aims to "mentalize the population and prevent the outbreaks from continuing to expand."

Regarding vaccines, López Hoyos agrees that 5.000 doses are insufficient and affirms that If Spain leads the number of global cases, it must have more doses to control these outbreaks.

López Hoyos believes that with this disease, action was taken promptly from the beginning and the clinical manifestations were described very quickly, but people must be made aware of the risk in close contacts. massive parties like the one in the Canary Islands or saunas as happened in Madrid.

"I think that having made this global declaration goes in the direction of making the population aware and knowing that it is not transmitted through the air like Covid-19, doing everything possible to avoid contagion," he says.

international coordination

monkey pox has not emerged now, has been circulating in West Africa for decades but is currently with 75 affected countries when it is urgent to adopt the same surveillance principle.

This is what the coordinator of the Vaccine Group of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE) understands, Angela Domínguez, who sees the world alert declaration as a "correct" decision that will help countries pay more interest and use the available resources.

And this expert maintains that "From SARS-CoV-2 we learned that it is important to be governed by the same principle of case surveillance, notifications and monitoring."

Remember that not only covid and monkeypox led to international alerts, but also the Ebola and polio outbreaks.

As in all epidemics, Domínguez calls for being rigorous with isolating cases until skin lesions have healed and avoiding contact with immunosuppressed people.

He admits that in Spain there are now protocols agreed upon by the surveillance services of different communities on how to stop transmission, but the individual responsibility of people is key.

monkey pox It is transmitted by close contact and skin-to-skin contact is very important but also by respiratory droplets. Therefore, those who isolate themselves are recommended to use a mask.

Domínguez does not see a clear horizon for the end of this pandemic, but he is aware that "everything will depend on whether or not international coordination measures are followed."