Australia’s first probable case of potentially deadly monkeypox has been detected in Sydney in a recently returned traveller to Europe.
A man in his 40s developed a mild illness several days after arriving home and went to his GP who found monkeypox symptoms.
Urgent testing was carried out which has today identified a probable case of monkeypox, with confirmatory testing underway.
The man and a household contact are isolating at home, with care and support being provided by their GP and NSW Health.
Cases of monkeypox have been identified in several non-endemic countries in recent weeks, including several European countries and the United States.
One in ten of those infected dies from the rare African-originated disease which leaves victims pockmarked with painful, ugly blisters and rashes over their body.
It’s highly infectious between people in close proximity but can only be spread through bodily fluids or very close face-to-face contact in droplets of breath.
In the UK, the virus outbreak appears to have been confined to gay or bisexual men – but none of the latest cases had a direct connection with Africa.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said NSW Health has taken steps to ensure it identifies and appropriately managed any potential monkeypox cases.
‘NSW Health has issued a clinician alert to GPs and hospitals across the state and has also been in contact with sexual health services to increase awareness of the cases identified overseas and to provide advice on diagnosis and referral. We will be speaking with GPs about this issue again today,’ Dr Chant said.
‘Cases are occasionally reported in non endemic countries in returning travellers or their close contacts, or in owners of imported pets. People can contract monkeypox through very close contact with people who are infected with the virus,’ Dr Chant said.
‘The infection is usually a mild illness and most people recover within a few weeks.’
NSW Health will continue to work closely with its colleagues throughout Australia to monitor for cases and ensure the best clinical response if any are identified.
Australian health authorities are on high alert over fears a global outbreak of deadly monkeypox could arrive Down Under after the UK was rocked by a string of cases
Sydney’s Macquarie University Emeritus Professor Peter Curson told Daily Mail Australia the virus is very difficult to screen for.
‘It’s certainly a serious viral infection once it’s broken out and it would be very difficult to screen for it.
‘We really do not fully understand what it is, how it is or what we should do.’
‘We’re really not fully apprised of how to control it or what drugs to use, or indeed, perhaps, to recognise some of the symptoms early on.
‘You can go and visit a place like the Congo or Nigeria, be exposed to an infection, and a week or two later, get a flight to Australia showing no symptoms.
‘And yet within a week or two after that you can go down with an interesting viral infection.’
He said the Covid pandemic had shown medical science was still in a life or death battle with disease.
‘We do honestly believe that we have beaten have won the fight against infectious diseases, but nothing can be further from the truth as Covid demonstrated,’ he said.
‘Given the tremendous movement of people around the world – and the quickness one can return home having been exposed while showing absolutely no symptoms – how does one control the spread of an outbreak of new infectious diseases?
‘It will be very difficult.’
Macquarie University Emeritus Professor Peter Curson warns that it will be very difficult to prevent the spread of monkeypox
Australian medics have been told to watch out for symptoms which can be confused with less dangerous conditions like chickenpox, measles, syphilis or shingles
Nurses and doctors are being advised to stay ‘alert’ to patients who present with a new rash or scabby lesions (like above)
The announcement the virus has arrived in Australia comes as nine people have been diagnosed with monkeypox in the UK.
Two are known to each other but have no connection to any of the previous cases, in a sign the virus is spreading in the community for the first time.
All seven UK cases have tested positive for the West African strain of the virus, which is believed to be milder than other versions.
Health authorities in the UK have now launched an urgent investigation to discover the source of the new infections.
The initial case of the UK outbreak is believed to have been brought into the country by a victim who contracted the disease while travelling through Nigeria, where the virus is endemic.
Sexual health clinics in London have now reportedly introduced strict social distancing rules in waiting rules in a bid to avoid any further infections.
Although 10 per cent of victims can die from monkeypox, most recover within a few weeks after suffering the painful lesions and flu-like symptoms.
Unusually though, studies in Africa found the incurable disease was more deadly in younger people.
The tropical disease is carried in the wild by monkeys, rats, rabbits, squirrels and other small mammals.
It can spread to humans through direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or lesions of an infected animal, or eating under-cooked meat of infected animals.
There is no vaccine against the disease, but the smallpox vaccine was found to be 85 per cent effective. However after smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1980, the vaccine is now hard to find.
It is potentially far more infectious than Covid-19, with the World Health Organisation saying its R number is 2, compared to the various strains of Covid which has seen R numbers range from 0.6 to 1.6.
However in practice, monkeypox symptoms are far more obvious and the disease is more easily contained, limiting its real world spread.
An outbreak in the US last year saw more than 200 people being tracked for symptoms after a Texas man returned from Nigeria with the disease. A second case was later found in Maryland.
A 2020 WHO report said human-to-human transmission of the virus is rare and that the longest chain of cases appears to only have been six people before it ended.
The report said: ‘The epidemic risk for humans is considered to be small.’
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