EXPLAINED: Will Monkeypox Spread Like COVID in India?

Since monkeypox has been declared as a public health emergency owing to rise in cases across the globe, people are now trying to make comparisons and find answers if it is as contagious as the COVID-19 strains. So, are they? Read on to know more.

Monkeypox in India: As the monkeypox cases tally in India climbed to four, doctors and health departments across the country have been put on alert.  Yesterday, a 31-year-old resident of west Delhi with no recent foreign travel history was diagnosed with monkeypox. This was the fourth confirmed case of the viral disease in India, the first three were reported from Kerala.

Cases of monkeypox are on a rise across the globe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

So far, about 14,533 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported from around 72 countries. Therefore, the epidemic that started from Africa became a global health concern by July 2022. “I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

According to a report published by the IndianExpress, a PHEC is declared for “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response.” Now, that this disease calls for collective international response, people are comparing it with COVID and how it spread.

Monkeypox- signs and symptoms

Monkeypox is not a novel virus that the world has not seen before, unlike COVID-19. It is similar to smallpox according to Centre of Disease Control (CDC).  Reportedly, the first ever case of such skin lesion was registered in sometime around 1970s in Congo, Africa. There onwards it was observed that the disease could be spread via human and animal contact.

Headache, back pain, fever, skin lesion, swollen nymph nodes and fatigue are the most common symptoms of the virus that persist over 2-4 weeks of time. While it has been observed that this poxvirus is rarely fatal, severe complications can be developed in people with immune deficiencies.

Tracing its etymology, its was first discovered in monkeys and hence got the name. Eventually more such infected animals were usually found in the tropical forests of African regions.

Monkeypox vaccine

As the disease stems from the same family of small pox virus, orthopoxvirus, it is said that vaccines used for smallpox can be potentially administered  for monkeypox as well. US has registered over 2,800 cases and currently is using 2 smallpox vaccines. Another one called Jynneos was approved in 2019 for people 18 and above.

According to WHO, “Vaccination against smallpox was demonstrated through several observational studies to be about 85% effective in preventing monkeypox. Thus, prior smallpox vaccination may result in milder illness.”

Will it spread like COVID?

Doctors were of view that monkeypox will not be as transmissible as coronavirus and thus the chances of an outbreak were limited. Speaking to News 18, Dr Nivedita Gupta, head of virology at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said,”

This year that monkeypox will not spread like wildfire, but vigil has been stepped up across India. The virus won’t spread like wildfire as we feared for coronavirus,” said Gupta, adding “the virus requires large droplets to cause infections and hence is not much transmissible”.

People can catch the virus when in close contact with another infected human or animals. The New York Times published a report on the virus stating that researchers who have sequenced the monkeypox virus from recent cases have noted several mutations, but it may take some time to understand the role of these changes. Still, many experts believe that monkeypox can be contained. It also quoted Dr. Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, “Transmission is really happening from close physical contact, skin-to-skin contact. So it’s quite different from COVID in that sense.”

Over the decades, researchers who have sequenced monkeypox virus have concluded that several mutations  have taken place but there is still more to dig in the trenches of its evolution. Experts believe that the disease can be contained as it is mostly spreading due to incidence of close human contact unlike COVID that has variants which spread like wildfires even because of aerosol particles in the air.

Yet, no such mutations or variants have been found that can be deemed highly contagious or severely fatal. Therefore, people must take all due precautions to shield themselves against the virus even if it is not that deadly as coronavirus.

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