Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Bogabam here. The outbreak of monkeypox
Speaker 1: in the United States has, as of August four of
Speaker 1: this year, been declared a national public health emergency. This
Speaker 1: came a little less than two weeks after the World
Speaker 1: Health Organization declared it a public Health emergency of International Concern.
Speaker 1: But don't panic. There are vaccines to protect against it,
Speaker 1: and the fact that it's being called public health emergency
Speaker 1: here and internationally means that teams around the world will
Speaker 1: be on the alert to help contain it. So today,
Speaker 1: let's talk about what monkey pox is and how we
Speaker 1: can prevent its spread. A monkeypox is a viral infection
Speaker 1: that first presents with a basic suite of flu like
Speaker 1: symptoms fever, chills, and body aches. It may also cause
Speaker 1: fatigue and swollen lymph nodes, but it's most distinct symptom
Speaker 1: by far, is a pimple like rash that can cover
Speaker 1: the entire body, including the palms of the hands and
Speaker 1: soles of the feet of the person infected. The virus
Speaker 1: has an incubation period of about three to seventeen days
Speaker 1: from infection until symptoms show, and the illness will then
Speaker 1: usually last for two to three weeks. The monkeypox virus
Speaker 1: is a member of the orthopox virus family, which also
Speaker 1: includes both the smallpox and cowpox viruses. While all of
Speaker 1: these viruses are serious, monkeypox is significantly less virulent than smallpox,
Speaker 1: despite causing similar symptoms. That means it's way less deadly.
Speaker 1: For the article this episode is based on, has to Work,
Speaker 1: spoke with Dr Andrea McCollum, an epidemiologist at the US
Speaker 1: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. She said
Speaker 1: monkeypox has so far about eleven percent mortality in individuals
Speaker 1: who do not have prior smallpox vaccination, but smallpox could
Speaker 1: have upward of eighty or nine mortality. A smallpox has
Speaker 1: the distinction of being the first disease to be eradicated
Speaker 1: by a modern vaccine. The World Health Organization launched an
Speaker 1: intense vaccination program in nineteen sixty seven. The last known
Speaker 1: smallpox infection was in Somalia in nineteen seventy seven, and
Speaker 1: by the virus was declared functionally eliminated. Known small pox
Speaker 1: vaccines are about eighty five percent effective against monkeypox, but
Speaker 1: monkeypox hasn't been eradicated, and because the world has done
Speaker 1: so well in eradicating smallpox, countries have stopped vaccinating for it,
Speaker 1: and that means that fewer people have immunity from monkey
Speaker 1: pox as well. This has led to dozens of monkeypox
Speaker 1: outbreaks around the world. Contrary to its name, monkey pox
Speaker 1: is not usually spread by monkeys. It was given that
Speaker 1: moniker after it was first isolated from a monkey colony
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty eight. The virus is typically spread by
Speaker 1: small rodents such as dormice, rats, and tree and rope squirrels.
Speaker 1: The scientists still haven't pinned down which species is the
Speaker 1: natural reservoir for the disease, though some kind of rodent
Speaker 1: seems likely. The first case in a human was reported
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy. Cases usually crop up in heavily forested
Speaker 1: rural areas. McCollum said these are populations that are routinely
Speaker 1: hunting wild animals or have close contact with wild animals
Speaker 1: in the forest. Once one human contracts monkey pocks, they
Speaker 1: can pass it to other humans via respiratory droplets or
Speaker 1: contact with skin lesions. It's much less contagious than COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen or other respiratory viruses. When spread through the air,
Speaker 1: but it can linger on surfaces. Typically, close family members
Speaker 1: or caregivers of people with monkeypox are at the highest
Speaker 1: risk of becoming infected. Animal to human transmission can also
Speaker 1: occur when someone's bitten or scratched by an infected animal,
Speaker 1: or if they eat infected meat. In a statement, the
Speaker 1: director of the CDC's Division of High Consequence Pathogens and
Speaker 1: Pathology said, many of these global reports of monkeypox cases
Speaker 1: are occurring within sexual networks. However, healthcare providers should be
Speaker 1: alert to any rash that has features typical of monkeypox.
Speaker 1: We're asking the public to contact their healthcare provider if
Speaker 1: they have a new rash and are concerned about monkeypox.
Speaker 1: This isn't the first time that the United States has
Speaker 1: seen an outbreak. In two thousand three, monkeypox was accidentally
Speaker 1: imported into the US along with several small West African
Speaker 1: rodents as part of the pocket pet industry. The mammals
Speaker 1: were housed alongside a pack of prairie dogs, also destined
Speaker 1: for the pet trade. Prairie dogs and their fleas are
Speaker 1: notorious for transmitting diseases to humans, including bubonic plague. The
Speaker 1: little rodents picked up monkeypox virus easily. The infected prairie
Speaker 1: dogs were then sold to a Wisconsin family from a
Speaker 1: company in Illinois. In the end, more than forty five
Speaker 1: people across six states contracted the virus. The spread prompted
Speaker 1: the CDC to bust out a few reserve smallpox vaccines
Speaker 1: that the US government had stockpiled in case of a
Speaker 1: bioterrorism attack. Unfortunately, there were no fatalities from the two
Speaker 1: thousand three outbreak. However, the incident did lead to a
Speaker 1: ban on the sale of some West African rodents. There
Speaker 1: are currently two vaccines approved in the United States for
Speaker 1: preventing monkeypox. A small pox vaccine that was approved by
Speaker 1: the US Federal Drug Administration, or FDA in two thousand
Speaker 1: seven called a CAM two thousand, and a smallpox plus
Speaker 1: monkeypox vaccine that the FDA approved in twenty nineteen called
Speaker 1: Genius Again. These smallpox and monkeypox viruses are similar enough
Speaker 1: that smallpox vaccines can give people some immunity to both.
Speaker 1: They basically teach your immune system what the pox virus
Speaker 1: looks like, so that it will target and destroy monkeypox
Speaker 1: or smallpox if it enters your body later. This can
Speaker 1: prevent infection entirely or bless in the severity of an
Speaker 1: infection if it does slip through. The two seven vaccine
Speaker 1: a CAM two thousand injects a live virus into the skin,
Speaker 1: forming a scab that can spread the virus if you
Speaker 1: mess with it. The vaccine has also been associated with
Speaker 1: some serious side effects, so it shouldn't be taken by
Speaker 1: people who have certain risk factors, including pregnancy, multiple heart risks,
Speaker 1: skin conditions like dermatitis or exema, a weakened immune system
Speaker 1: or some types of cancer, or who are being treated
Speaker 1: with anticancer drugs or immune suppressants. If you're considering getting vaccinated,
Speaker 1: talk to your health care professional about any of these
Speaker 1: risk factors that you might have. Meanwhile, the twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: vaccine Geneos injects a weakened version of a virus into
Speaker 1: the skin. It can't replicate, and it's considered safer for
Speaker 1: more people. This vaccine is been in two doses four
Speaker 1: weeks apart. As of this recording, the United States has
Speaker 1: administered over three hundred thousand doses of genios and it's
Speaker 1: put in an order for nearly seven million more from
Speaker 1: its makers. And so who should get vaccinated on a
Speaker 1: national level, if you've had close contact with an infected person,
Speaker 1: if your immune system is weakened, or if you have
Speaker 1: dermatitis or exema, you're eligible for a GENIOS vaccine. Some
Speaker 1: state and local governments have also opened up availability to
Speaker 1: people who have had multiple sexual partners in the past
Speaker 1: two weeks. Today's episode is based on the article Monkeypops
Speaker 1: confirmed in the US and Europe. What you Need to
Speaker 1: Know on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Joanna Thompson.
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