What you probably didn't know about this disease

What you probably didn't know about this disease

Monkeypox begins with fever, headache, muscle aches, and exhaustion.

Monkeypox is believed to be a rare viral zoonosis.

Zoonoses, on the other hand, are animal diseases that are transmissible to humans. Thus making Monkeypox a transmitted disease.

The disease which is said to be caused by monkey virus was first recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1970, during a period of an intensified effort to eliminate smallpox.

It would break out in Nigeria for the third time in September 2017, with thirty-one suspected cases reported across seven states; as it was first experienced in 1971 and 1978 respectively.

However, the outbreak of the disease which occurred in September seems to have been curtailed to some extent. New cases are not being reported like before and tension has obviously subsided.

But this doesn't go to say that the disease has been eliminated. It's a virus, and there's every possibility of another outbreak.

Be that as it may, here are some certain things we've decided to let you know about Monkeypox.

1. The symptoms of monkeypox are similar to but milder than the symptoms of smallpox in human beings.

2. Monkeypox begins with fever, headache, muscle aches, and exhaustion.

3. The main difference between symptoms of smallpox and monkeypox is that monkeypox causes lymph nodes to swell (lymphadenopathy) while smallpox does not.

4. The incubation period (time from infection to symptoms) for monkeypox is usually seven to fourteen days but can range from five to twenty-one days.

5. Patients are expected to develop a rash within one to three days (sometimes longer) after the appearance of fever; where the various stages of the rash appear, often beginning on the face and then spreading elsewhere on the body.

6. The face (in 95% of cases), and palms of the hands and soles of the feet (75%) are most affected. Evolution of the rash from maculopapules (lesions with flat bases) to vesicles (small fluid-filled blisters), pustules, followed by crusts occurs in approximately ten days.

7. Human-to-human transmission can result from close contact with infected respiratory tract secretions, skin lesions of an infected person or objects recently contaminated by patient fluids or lesion materials.

8. The disease can be transmitted from human to human through physical touch, contact with stool, and blood contact.

9. According to statistics, ten percent of those who contract Monkeypox died as a result of the disease.

10. It is believed that children are more susceptible to the infection.

11. The number of the lesions varies from a few to several thousand, affecting oral mucous membranes (in 70% of cases), genitalia (30%), and conjunctivae (eyelid) (20%), as well as the cornea (eyeball).

Medical reports have it that, lesions progress through the following stages before falling off:

• Macules
• Papules
• Vesicles
• Pustules
• Scabs

12. Although there is presently no known or proven, safe treatment for the disease, vaccination against smallpox has been proven to be 85% effective in preventing monkeypox.

However, the vaccine is no longer available to the public after it was discontinued following global smallpox eradication in 1980.