Monkeypox has entered the community and can appear anywhere.

The pathogen has penetrated the community. The Ministry of Health predicts that in the coming time, Vietnam will likely continue to record new cases, especially in other major cities besides Ho Chi Minh City.

Bệnh đậu mùa khỉ có thể lây truyền trước khi xuất hiện các triệu chứng

Monkeypox has become endemic, so an outbreak can occur anywhere, at any time.

According to statistics, to date, Vietnam has recorded 56 cases of monkeypox in 7 provinces and cities. Especially since the beginning of July, our country has continuously recorded cases.

Most cases were male (92.9%), with sexual orientation being homosexual or bisexual (78.6%), and heterosexual (8.9%). About 63% were infected with HIV, 46% had other sexually transmitted diseases.

Dr. Nguyen Trung Cap, Deputy Director of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, said that monkeypox has become an endemic disease, so an outbreak can occur in any locality, at any time. Fortunately, the disease is transmitted through direct contact and blood, not through the respiratory system, so it will not cause a strong epidemic like the flu or Covid-19.

In addition, this group is at high risk of HIV infection and sometimes experiences co-infection with monkeypox and HIV.

Monkeypox is transmitted through contact including sexual intercourse, so a person who has many sexual partners has a higher chance of accidentally encountering a partner carrying the monkeypox virus than normal.

According to doctors, for healthy people, the disease progresses relatively benignly. As long as they are well isolated and treated for secondary infections if any, after 21 days the patient will fully recover.

During the treatment phase, to avoid the risk of infection to others, caregivers need to limit direct contact with secretions from ulcers by using gloves, masks, and washing hands regularly.

In cases with normal resistance, the prognosis is good, not causing serious illness and death. However, the disease can progress severely in people with poor resistance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam recommends that you can protect yourself from monkeypox by avoiding close contact with people who have symptoms.

Specifically:

- Avoid direct skin contact, face-to-face or mouth-to-skin contact.

- Regularly clean hands, objects, surfaces, bed sheets, towels and clothes.

- Wear a mask if you need to be in close contact with someone who has symptoms, when touching bedding, towels and clothing.

- Ask the other person if they have symptoms before having close contact.

- Condoms may not prevent transmission of monkeypox during sex, but may help prevent other sexually transmitted infections.

Symptoms of monkeypox

- Swollen lymph nodes.

- Fever.

- Rash with blisters on the face, hands, feet, eyes, mouth, genitals.

- Headache, muscle pain and back pain.

- Weak

Monkeypox progresses through the following stages:

- Incubation period: About 6 to 13 days, (ranging from 5 to 21 days), infected people have no symptoms and are not contagious.

- Initial stage: from 1 to 5 days with the main symptoms being fever and swollen lymph nodes throughout the body. The patient may also have headaches, fatigue, chills, sore throat, and muscle pain. The virus can be transmitted to others from this stage.

- Acute phase: Characterized by the appearance of skin rashes, often occurring 1 to 3 days after fever.

- Recovery phase: symptoms of monkeypox can last from 2 to 4 weeks and then go away on their own. The patient no longer has clinical symptoms, scars on the skin can affect aesthetics and there is no longer a risk of infection to others.

Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 in monkeys kept for research, hence the name monkeypox. The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and subsequently became endemic in Central and West Africa.

However, since last year, the world has recorded an increase in the number of cases, especially in some European countries.

On July 23, 2022, the WHO Director-General declared monkeypox an international public health emergency.

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