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According to the latest results of scientists who have studied the disease, the monkeypox virus could be found in the semen of infected people. The WHO is therefore studying the possibility that the sexual route is also a gateway to being contaminated by this virus.
The monkeypox epidemic continues to spread in Europe and the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to closely scrutinize its evolution. Latest information to date: the virus could be present in semen and therefore be transmitted sexually.
Virus in the semen of patients
Indeed, scientists recently announced that they had detected DNA from the “monkeypox” virus, monkeypox, in Italy and Germany in semen samples. A sample was tested in the lab and the researchers’ results suggest that the virus in the semen was able to infect another person and replicate. Capital information because it was not yet established until now that the virus could be transmitted in this way.
A sexually transmitted infection, but not only
For Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician and medical director of Doctissimo, this new transmission route explains “the spread of the disease in certain homosexual circles and in particular among men who have sex with men and in particular several different sexual partners”.
Be careful, however, not to reduce the disease to a simple sexually transmitted infection. “It is an additional mode of transmission, however, it should not be forgotten that the disease is also transmitted through contact with saliva, vesicles filled with secretions, skin-to-skin contact with lesions…” warn the doctor.
Remember that in the event of contamination with the virus, a quarantine of at least 21 days must be respected, with isolation of the patient and separation of his linen, his dishes from other members of the household and from all the elements with which he is likely to come into contact.
A number of cases that continues to increase
At present, there have been more than 1,300 cases of smallpox virus in some 40 countries since the beginning of May. The majority of cases are in men who have had sex with men and are not linked to travel to Africa, where the disease is endemic.
In France, 277 cases have been identified, according to a report from Public Health France (SPF) dated June 21, mainly in Ile-de-France (195 cases) but also in Occitanie and New Aquitaine (16 cases), in Auvergne -Rhône-Alpes (14 cases) and in Hauts-de-France (12 cases). A rapid progression, the count was 183 patients affected by the virus as of June 16.
Finally, another peculiarity was reported by SPF, with the “first confirmed female case”, whose “mode of transmission is under investigation.. The disease usually begins with a high fever, which regresses and then gives way to a rash that will dry up to give scabs that will eventually fall off.