Monkeypox is not COVID-19, but both are viral diseases that are front-and-center in the world of public health and epidemiology. Here’s a look at the latest news on both outbreaks.
Monkeypox is not COVID-19. But both are viral diseases that are front-and-center in the world of public health and epidemiology. Here is a look at the top stories concerning both.
Monkeypox Outbreak Underlines Animal-Human Interface Issues
On Sunday, the World Health Organization reported 257 confirmed cases of monkeypox around the world, with another 120 suspected cases in 23 countries. Current numbers appear to be 606 confirmed cases outside Africa, spread across at least 30 countries.
Although a long way from resembling the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing they likely have in common is they are examples of animal viruses jumping on human beings. In the case of COVID-19, some experts believe it could have spread from bats to intermediate animals, and then to humans.
Monkeypox is not new, but it is unusual to see cases globally. It’s more common in Africa, although it’s still not particularly common worldwide. This year, seven African countries have reported 1,400 total cases of monkeypox to the WHO. What is of concern to experts, however, is a possible rise of zoonotic diseases. That is to say, diseases humans get from animals.
“We are dealing with an animal-human interface that is quite unstable,” Dr. Mike Ryan, M.D., executive director for health emergencies at the WHO said during a WHO press briefing. “What we are seeing is hyper-endemicity becoming more persistent, more frequent, and more outbreaks.”
On the other hand, it has been noted that nobody was paying much attention to monkeypox until it started appearing in non-African countries. Ryan added, “I didn’t hear the same level of concern over the last five to 10 years when the disease was predominate in Africa.”
Some public health officials believe monkeypox didn’t suddenly burst onto the scene outside Europe but has been ongoing for some time undetected.
“The fact this virus has appeared in Europe, it does suggest there may have been undetected transmission for a while,” Rosamund Lewis, WHO technical lead on monkeypox said. “We don’t know how long this may have been: weeks, months, a couple of years.”
Almost two decades ago, however, there was an outbreak of monkeypox in the U.S. In 2003, the U.S. reported 47 confirmed and probable cases in six states. The people who contracted the disease may have picked it up after contact with prairie dogs sold as pets. These were the first human monkeypox cases reported outside of Africa. There were no deaths or human-to-human transmission reported.
“We think monkeypox lives in small rodents of various kinds,” Dr. William Schaffner, M.D., professor of preventive medicine in the Department of Health Policy, and professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine said. “There’s an international trade in exotic pets and some of these small rodents were imported into the U.S., where there are people who sell exotic pets. Rodents from Africa had close contact with prairie dogs, which were also being sold as pets. Those prairie dogs gave it to some people in the U.S.”
COVID-19 Update
Dogs Can Sniff Out COVID-19
A study published in the journal PLos One found that dogs were able to identify 97% of positive COVID-19 cases by sniffing human sweat samples. That’s more sensitive than some of the rapid antigen tests. The study was conducted in Paris and used samples from symptomatic, asymptomatic and non-infected people. The dogs were particularly effective at detecting asymptomatic infections, almost 100%. However, it’s apparently difficult to train dogs to detective COVID-19 in the real world. The researchers trained five dogs using toy rewards for detecting a positive COVID-19 sample.
3 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Offer Protection Against Infection and Hospitalization
Investigators in China evaluated 38 WHO databases to conduct an ongoing meta-analysis of three COVID-19 vaccines. These included 53 observational studies and randomized controlled trials of 100,190,476 participants of all ages receiving 24 different COVID-19 regimens using seven vaccine types.
They found that a three-dose mRNA vaccine regimen was the most effective against both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections, with about 96% efficacy. Three doses of an mRNA vaccine offered about 95% protection against COVID-19 hospitalization, but effectiveness against death wasn’t as clear due to confounding factors and the structure of the observational studies.
Why Yet Another COVID-19 Surge
Virologists and epidemiologists say the reason we’re facing yet another surge of COVID-19 is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is switching strategies, getting better at evading our immune systems. It’s largely related to two new variants of the Omicron variant. The second Omicron variant is BA.2 and its more recent lineages are BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5. And all are associated with increased rates of vaccine breakthrough and reinfection.
Dr. Paul Offit, M.D., a U.S. Food and Drug Administration adviser and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, recently said the most recent strains succeeding “not because they’re more contagious, as much as they are more immune evasive. This is something that surprises virologists.”
Earlier in the pandemic, Offit said the virus grew more contagious. But descendants of Omicron appear better at evading the immune system. It doesn’t appear to make the disease any more deadly — and the vaccines and immunity from previous infections appear to continue to do a good job at preventing serious disease and death.
“As weeks go by it is evident that the Omicron family of viruses continue to grow in complexity,” said William Haseltine, Ph.D., former professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. “The story of the Omicron family of variants is still emerging and one that the world is watching closely.”
