Regarding the fact that monkeypox infections are being reported one after another in Europe and the United States, Professor Shigeru Morikawa of Okayama University of Science, who is familiar with monkeypox, said, "In Africa, rodents carrying the monkeypox virus are found in forests and become wild animals. It is easy for people who touch it to get infected, and there are cases where people who return from Africa develop the disease. Normally, even if infected, it was transmitted to another person, but the infection is outside Africa like this time. It's the first time that it has spread to 90 people, so we have to be cautious. We are waiting for a detailed investigation into why the number of infected people is increasing and what kind of infection route it has spread. " ..
Symptoms of monkeypox are that after a rash on the skin, in severe cases, a rash appears on the whole body, or a high fever occurs and the immune function deteriorates.
It is said that the younger the age, the more serious the disease may be, but in developed countries, there are few cases of death from monkeypox, and the details are unknown.
Professor Morikawa said that the smallpox vaccine, which had been inoculated to children until 1976 before the eradication of smallpox, was effective for prevention. It is said that immunity remains even after decades. In Japan, there is a safe vaccine that is very effective and has few side reactions. It is made as a national stock vaccine for bioterrorism. Therefore, it is not available to the general public now, but it has considerable manufacturing capacity. There is only symptomatic therapy for the treatment, but the therapeutic drug has already been approved in the United States, and it is thought that it will be widely used if the infection spreads. I will be able to do it. "
On the other hand, regarding the spread of infection in the future, "Although the age of patients reported overseas is not known in detail, it is certain that the center of infection is the generation not receiving the smallpox vaccine. I think that smallpox is a disease that is transmitted when it comes in contact with the body fluids or blood of patients, and the number of patients is not increasing rapidly like the new corona virus, so there is no need to worry about the spread of the infection all over the world. I think. "