A case study recently published highlights light the potential for monkeypox to affect the heart. A 31-year-old Portuguese goes to hospital in Porto as he presents the symptoms symptoms of monkeypox for five days: painful pimples on the genitals, hands and face, fever, pains all over the body and intense fatigue. Doctors quickly identify the virus from monkey pox as the cause of his condition. But, three days later, he returned to the emergency room with symptoms that suggested heart damage.
Myocarditis associated with monkeypox
The patient is transferred to intensive care to perform several heart examinations. Doctors detect myocarditis, a inflammation heart muscle, visibly due to monkey pox. Myocarditis has already been observed in patients infected with smallpox, the more aggressive cousin of monkeypox. The physicians who treated this patient note that “ by extrapolation, monkeypox could have a tropism for the myocardium or could cause injury to the heart via inflammation “. After a week in intensive care during which all signs of myocarditis disappeared, the patient was discharged home.
” This case highlights heart problems as a potential complication associated with monkeypox infectionsaid Ana Isabel Pinho, a doctor in Porto and lead author of the study. We believe that reporting this potential causal relationship may increase awareness in the scientific community and healthcare professionals of acute myocarditis as a possible complication associated with monkeypox; and could be useful for close monitoring of affected patients to better identify further complications in the future”.
Monkeypox has infected more than 50,000 people worldwide, including 3,646 in France. The epidemic is not just about the community homosexualsince women and children have been affected by the virus.
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