The incidence of monkey pox has risen to about 260 confirmed cases, and dozens more are being investigated in 21 countries around the world, raising the important question of who is more vulnerable to infection and who can They are immune to this disease.
A lengthy study by the New York Times on Thursday showed groups more vulnerable to infection and the ability of vaccines to prevent it.
Most children and adults with a healthy immune system are likely to avoid severe symptoms, even if they are infected, the newspaper quoted experts as saying.
But the experts stressed that two groups are at risk for the disease, which are: infants under six months, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.
On the other hand, the newspaper says that many studies show that many older people are somewhat safe from infection after receiving vaccines against smallpox for decades.
He says they may be infected, but they probably only have mild symptoms.
“Even those who were vaccinated decades ago have very, very high levels of antibodies and the ability to neutralize the virus,” the newspaper quoted Luigi Ferrucci, director of the National Institute on Aging, as saying.
Smallpox infection begins with respiratory symptoms, but develops first in the mouth, then on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, and gradually spreads to the rest of the body. The rash then gets worse in the form of pus-filled blisters.
The blisters contain a live virus that, if exploded, infects the bed and bedding and puts those around you at risk of infection. Infected people are not contagious after the blisters form and the blisters disappear.
Experts advise people to be very careful when rubbing their eyes because the virus can damage vision.
“Before the smallpox vaccine was developed, it was the number one cause of blindness in the world,” said Mark Slioka, an immunologist at Oregon University of Science and Health.
However, this article says, there are conflicting opinions about the shelf life of immunity to smallpox vaccine.
The newspaper quotes David Diegel, a spokesman for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying that smallpox vaccines should be given every three years, but only to people who are at risk of infection as a result of their occupation, such as health workers.
In a study of 306 volunteers, some of whom were vaccinated with the smallpox vaccine decades ago, including one who was vaccinated 75 years ago, most of them retained high levels of smallpox antibodies.
According to the newspaper, in another study, it was shown that the antibodies produced by a dose of smallpox vaccine are very slowly reduced in the body and after about 92 years are reduced by half.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health also found that antibody levels persist for decades after vaccination and may alone be sufficient to protect against monkey pox.
Another 2003 study, in which dozens of Americans became infected as a result of mixing with dogs infected with monkeypox, included about 28 infected people, including eight people who had previously been vaccinated with the smallpox vaccine.
The study found that five of the eight blisters had only three blisters full of pus, compared with an average of 33 blisters in those who had not been vaccinated.
The other three who were vaccinated had no symptoms and did not even know they had the disease.
Another study found that in a family of three, only two blisters appeared in a previously vaccinated father, while in a mother who did not receive the vaccine, 200 blisters appeared.
Their 6-year-old daughter, who also did not receive the vaccine, had about 90 blisters and was in a coma for 12 days.
Monkey pox is a less common disease than smallpox in 11 countries in West and Central Africa. It is a rare disease and has been known to humans since 1970 and was discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire).
The disease is transmitted through biting or direct contact with infected blood, flesh, or body fluids, and early symptoms include high fever before rapidly turning into a rash.
Usually, people with monkey pox, as it is known so far, recover on their own and the symptoms last for two to three weeks. Severe cases are more common in children and are related to exposure to the virus, the patient’s medical condition, and the severity of complications.
Source: Lebanon Debate
