Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Speaker 1: with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: In August, the World Health Organization declared an empoc's global
Speaker 2: Health emergency as one strain. The virus has now killed
Speaker 2: over five hundred and seventy five people in the Democratic
Speaker 2: Republic of Congo and infected thirty times. More. New cases
Speaker 2: have recently appeared now in Europe and Asia. We're joined
Speaker 2: now by Carrie Debink, Associate Professor in the Department of
Speaker 2: Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
Speaker 2: of Public Health. And a quick disclaimer. The Johns Hopkins
Speaker 2: Bloomberg School of Public Health is supported by Michael R. Bloomberg,
Speaker 2: founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. So, Carrie, what
Speaker 2: do Americans need to know about the threat of MPOs So?
Speaker 3: I think the first thing that's really important for the
Speaker 3: general public to understand is that right now our risk
Speaker 3: is very low. We have not seen any cases of
Speaker 3: the specific type of empocs that the public health emergency
Speaker 3: has been activated for. However, you know that health emergency
Speaker 3: went out to make sure that the governments and public
Speaker 3: health agencies are gearing up and getting ready in case
Speaker 3: we do see something, and also helping countries where there
Speaker 3: are cases combat it there so that it doesn't spread further.
Speaker 3: So for the general public right now, the risk is
Speaker 3: very low, but we also are prepared.
Speaker 1: How are we prepared?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question. So I think first I
Speaker 3: want to just give a background on empocs as far
Speaker 3: as how it's defined. So there's actually two different big
Speaker 3: groups of empocs. There's Claye one and Clayed two. And
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two, there was a global outbreak of
Speaker 3: Clade two, including cases here in the United States, and
Speaker 3: there are still cases of the clade too empocs here
Speaker 3: in the US. However, this specific public health emergency is
Speaker 3: actually geared towards one of the Clade one virus, and
Speaker 3: the reason for that being it's spreading to places that
Speaker 3: hasn't spread, it's spreading in ways it hasn't spread, and
Speaker 3: historically this has been a type of EMPOCS that causes
Speaker 3: more severe disease and higher death rates. And so that's
Speaker 3: why people are concerned now because in twenty twenty two
Speaker 3: we had that outbreak of the Clade two virus, our
Speaker 3: public health agencies and health infrastructure really stepped up to
Speaker 3: make sure that we're able to do really good surveillance
Speaker 3: for EMPOCS. So we do wastewater testing and people are
Speaker 3: doing clinical sample testing. We're also able to detect it
Speaker 3: in clinical cases, so there's a test that can tell
Speaker 3: whether or not somebody has EMPOCS versus another type of virus.
Speaker 3: And we also have vaccines available for people in high
Speaker 3: risk groups. So our health infrastructure really in the United
Speaker 3: States is set up well in case we do end
Speaker 3: up seeing clayed when virus is here.
Speaker 2: What are the symptoms of EMPOCS and then what are
Speaker 2: the treatments then if someone does contract it.
Speaker 3: So the symptoms of EMPOCS, they start out like typical
Speaker 3: flu symptoms, so fever, swollen lymph nodes, headache, those are
Speaker 3: some of the general symptoms that people can have. But
Speaker 3: the characteristic symptom of EMPOCS it's a pox virus, so
Speaker 3: it causes blisters, and so you end up with a
Speaker 3: rash that starts off as a flat rash, it that
Speaker 3: erupts into blisters that are fluid filled. Those burst and
Speaker 3: scab over and and it heals. So that's the characteristic
Speaker 3: when people think of empocs, they're thinking usually of that
Speaker 3: rash and those blisters, So those are the main symptoms.
Speaker 3: Usually people recover. In severe cases, you know, people might
Speaker 3: have severe respiratory illness or neurological symptoms, and in rare
Speaker 3: cases people die from empocs, but the majority of people
Speaker 3: do recover. As far as treatments go, there are no
Speaker 3: licensed specific anti virals or specifically for empacts. However, there
Speaker 3: have been cases where people are using antivirals that have
Speaker 3: been approved for other viral infections to try to treat it.
Speaker 3: Usually this is in severe cases. For most people that
Speaker 3: don't end up with a really severe case, it's mostly
Speaker 3: treating the symptoms, you know, making sure that their pain
Speaker 3: is managed, that they're not getting secondary infections, like from
Speaker 3: a bacteria that invades, like the wounds, from the from
Speaker 3: the blisters, things like that.
Speaker 1: Carrie, who who's most at risk for for mpaks and
Speaker 1: should these people be getting vaccinated?
Speaker 3: Right? So, traditionally for Claye one viruses that were you know,
Speaker 3: they're they're traditionally found in Central Africa. It's usually children
Speaker 3: there that are that are the ones that are getting
Speaker 3: it the most, followed by also followed by people with
Speaker 3: immune deficiencies, so those are like the two highest risk group,
Speaker 3: children and people with immune deficiencies. Pregnant women are also
Speaker 3: at a greater risk of to themselves and to the
Speaker 3: developing fetus of the baby. Here in the United States,
Speaker 3: in the two thousand and two outbreak, it was mostly
Speaker 3: seen in populations of men having sex with men, you know,
Speaker 3: So it really just depends on the particular location and
Speaker 3: the main transmission route in a certain area who might
Speaker 3: be the most at risk of getting it. But as
Speaker 3: far as severe infections and death, it's definitely children and
Speaker 3: people who are already compromised.
Speaker 2: So are most children getting a vaccine that would protect
Speaker 2: against this.
Speaker 3: No, in the United States, children are not being vaccinated
Speaker 3: right now in the United States. You know. Again, we
Speaker 3: haven't seen any Played one viruses at this point, So
Speaker 3: the vaccinations that have been given to this point have
Speaker 3: been for the two thousand and two outbreakak of that
Speaker 3: clade two virus, and the CDC has very specific recommendations
Speaker 3: for who gets that vaccine. It's really only recommended for
Speaker 3: specific groups that are high risk of development of being exposed.
Speaker 1: In terms of like a worry list. Right now, where
Speaker 1: should we be? Where should this be on our list
Speaker 1: of things to worry about? I have a list, Yeah,
Speaker 1: have a list.
Speaker 3: Okay, we'll put on put this one low.
Speaker 1: Come.
Speaker 3: And there's a couple there's a couple of reasons for that.
Speaker 3: So I know that it sounds really scary when people
Speaker 3: here like public health Emergency of International Concern, right, But
Speaker 3: you know that's you know, that's the who's designation. But
Speaker 3: that's really not meant to be for the average person
Speaker 3: in the public. That's really meant to be for governments
Speaker 3: and public health agencies to step up to prepare their
Speaker 3: infrastructure and to allow them to provide additional aid to
Speaker 3: where it needs to go. So it's really that's really
Speaker 3: telling everybody to get ready for it, not that the
Speaker 3: average person needs to be worried about contracting it.
Speaker 1: Carrie, thank you so much, the super super helpful Kerrie Debank,
Speaker 1: Associate Professor in the Department of molecum and Microbiology and
Speaker 1: Immunology at the Johns Hopkins A. Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Speaker 1: supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder A Bloomberg LP and
Speaker 1: A Bloomberg philanthropy,