A new study published by the British scientific journal The Lancet suggests that European patients with monkeypox do not show the same symptoms usually seen in African patients. This study was based on the observation of fifty British patients, ie half of the total number of patients in the United Kingdom in May.
The observations carried out with this sample made it possible to demonstrate that the fever, in particular, was not at all systematic, since it only concerned half of them, was shorter, and led less often to hospitalizations. Another observation made, the lesions of the disease are often concentrated around the genitals and extend less to other parts of the body, such as the face or the neck.
Different symptoms, but the same virus
This last element leads the researchers to believe that the first British patients actually contracted the disease during sexual relations. This does not mean that monkeypox can be sexually transmitted, but that contact with a patient’s lesion could lead to contamination.
Despite different symptoms observed in Europe and Africa, the researchers insist that it is not a new version of the virus: “There is no major genetic modification” in the viruses sequenced in current patients, noted pulmonologist Hugh Adler to AFP. The latter also adds that cases without fever or extensive lesions may not have been detected in Africa. Despite the possible biases, this is the first study that attempts to circumscribe the specificities of the monkeypox epidemic, which has affected nearly 4,500 people in Europe according to the WHO, including four for the moment in Brittany. .
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