The mpox formerly known as the monkeypox virus is largely spread through close and primarily sexual contact. Cases of the disease are generally mild. A vaccination is available. Several countries outside Africa have detected the new variant of mpox. No further action is required for the Swiss population at present in response to the mpox situation. The mpox virus is a member of the orthopoxvirus family.
Two mpox clades have been identified to date:. Several African countries have reported increases in their numbers of cases of Clade I mpox. The mpox virus is primarily transmitted amoung humans through direct contact of the skin or mucous membranes, or via contact with infected secretions from one or more blisters or lesions on the skin or the mucous membranes of a person already infected, and especially via sexual contact. Whether the virus can also be transmitted via semen, vaginal secretions, urine or faeces has not yet been established.
Top of page. Mpox can occur between 5 and 21 days after close contact with an infected person. The severity of the symptoms of the resulting disease varies from case to case. Some infected persons develop only isolated and mild symptoms. The skin rash is often unremarkable, with few or only isolated blisters or lesions. These blisters and lesions may be painful or itchy, and can develop at any stage in the course of the disease.
A person with mpox may be infectious themselves from the time the first symptoms appear until the skin rash has disappeared, i. No long-term effects of an mpox infection have yet been detected. Immunocompromised persons, infants, children and pregnant women seem to be at a higher risk of developing a more severe case of the disease. The treatment of mpox consists primarily in treating its symptoms. In particularly severe cases, an antiviral therapy may also be conducted.
The appropriate medicine is available in Switzerland. The mpox virus is likely to have originated among rodents in West and Central Africa, which may have then passed it on to humans. A few occasional cases or minor outbreaks of the disease had been reported from these West and Central African regions up to May Elsewhere, apart from one outbreak in the USA in , only isolated cases had been reported, among persons who had recently travelled to the African regions concerned. Exceptionally large numbers of Clade II mpox infections were first seen worldwide β and in Switzerland, too β in summer Only sporadic cases have been reported since autumn What has been observed β both in Switzerland and worldwide β is that the cases reported have particularly but not exclusively involved men who have sex with men MSM and trans people with multiple and changing male sexual partners.
