No Mpox thread?
No Mpox thread?
I'm a fairly infrequent visitor I'll admit so may have missed it but is there any reason there is no thread devoted to the Mpox situation in terms of at least keeping an eye on the global situation? I notice other forums have discussions on it so was curious why not here. Is it because it is not regarded as currently being a concern from a UK perspective or is there another reason?
Re: No Mpox thread?
It's mainly a problem in Africa, among people who haven't been vaccinated for smallpox. Clade 11 outbreak of 2022-3 reached UK but only has a 0.16% fatality rate, mostly among people with compromised immunity. Older people will have had smallpox vaccine. It was discontinued in 1977 I think, that is when WHO discontinued global campaign.
Re: No Mpox thread?
I think most people here will start to pay more attention once the first cases pop up in Europe or here. The only reason to pay attention earlier would be to stock up on anything that would vanish from the shelves once the government or population starts to panic - but most people here would already be fairly stocked up anyway.
Re: No Mpox thread?
We have one nownightowl wrote: ↑Sun Aug 18, 2024 6:26 pm I'm a fairly infrequent visitor I'll admit so may have missed it but is there any reason there is no thread devoted to the Mpox situation in terms of at least keeping an eye on the global situation? I notice other forums have discussions on it so was curious why not here. Is it because it is not regarded as currently being a concern from a UK perspective or is there another reason?
The MPox risk is barely in the UK psyche yet, possibly because it's mostly another continent's problem and mostly a close contact disease (STI) : Just A.N.Other possible pandemic.
For perspective...
"Detection of cases of mpox infection, acquired within the UK, were confirmed in England from 6 May 2022. The outbreak has mainly been in gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men without documented history of travel to endemic countries."
"In 2023 and 2024 (up to 31 July 2024), there have been a total of 286 cases of mpox reported in the UK. Of these, 269 were in England (116 cases were presumed to have acquired mpox in the UK, 82 were acquired outside the UK and 71 are awaiting classification), 11 were in Scotland (7 were imported cases acquired outside the UK, 3 were presumed to have acquired mpox in the UK and one is awaiting classification), one was in Wales (an imported case acquired outside the UK), and 5 were in Northern Ireland (one was presumed to have acquired mpox in the UK, one was an imported case acquired outside the UK and 3 are awaiting classification)."
Smallpox Vaccines are effective against it and testing is straightforward. Though the pox lesions are nasty, they generally don't kill.
More info from WHO
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-shee ... /monkeypox
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought
Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
Re: No Mpox thread?
Perhaps not a thread on here but as a nurse for the mighty NHS we've been issued a protocol in case of suspected outbreak so incredibly maybe some lessons have been learnt from covid, maybe........
Re: No Mpox thread?
There’s cases all over Europe, Sweden is the latest.
Re: No Mpox thread?
One troubling feature of mpox is that it exists in a range of small wild mammals eaten in Africa. So it will always have a reservoir of hosts.
If we are to get on the front foot with this virus, I reckon we need to roll out vaccination for it, targeted on health workers, the immune compromised, and maybe international travellers.
We'll always have such diseases circulating in society. It's an ever present threat. So we preppers take reasonable steps to avoid them while expecting to get one of the nasties one day. I'm not panicking yet.
If we are to get on the front foot with this virus, I reckon we need to roll out vaccination for it, targeted on health workers, the immune compromised, and maybe international travellers.
We'll always have such diseases circulating in society. It's an ever present threat. So we preppers take reasonable steps to avoid them while expecting to get one of the nasties one day. I'm not panicking yet.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought
Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
Re: No Mpox thread?
I'll never forget the Government taking the last 12 months of me being with my Father when he needed me the most. 
Two is one and one is none, but three is even better.
Re: No Mpox thread?
The illness is officially called mpox. It is caused by the Monkeypox virus. That is the species name, aka MPXV. It is divided into three strains, I, IIa and IIb. Clades I and II are related to two areas in Africa.
2022-3 outbreak is clade IIb.
All life is categorised into clades. A clade is the last common ancestor and all its lineal descendents. In this context, clade means subtype, aka variant, aka strain, of the species.
Interestingly, biologists still haven't agreed as to whether viruses count as life or not. They don't meet all the normal criteria that define life. They can only reproduce within an infected host. Viruses are categorised into species, genus etc as is all life, and they do evolve, quickly. Remember the covid variants like omicron etc.
2022-3 outbreak is clade IIb.
All life is categorised into clades. A clade is the last common ancestor and all its lineal descendents. In this context, clade means subtype, aka variant, aka strain, of the species.
Interestingly, biologists still haven't agreed as to whether viruses count as life or not. They don't meet all the normal criteria that define life. They can only reproduce within an infected host. Viruses are categorised into species, genus etc as is all life, and they do evolve, quickly. Remember the covid variants like omicron etc.