Until 2022, monkeypox was predominantly recorded in Africa or in travelers returning from the continent. On Thursday (24), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there is evidence of local transmission of the disease in the country.
In an interview with CNN Radio the president of the Brazilian Society of Virology (SBV), Flávio da Fonseca, explained that the notifications did not usually go beyond sporadic cases, which did not present a worrying transmissibility.
Fonseca believes in a genetic change in the virus that made it more infectious.
“Even in Africa, although with intrinsic surveillance problems, we do not have a record of such a large outbreak and with so many people involved in such a short space of time”, explained Fonseca.
The president of the SBV does not, however, believe in the risk of a pandemic caused by the disease.
The argument is that even a possible strain more transmissible than monkeypox would still not compare to the ability of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 to mutate and infect.
“The monkeypox virus needs greater proximity between people so that it can be transmitted and, therefore, it is more controllable. It is a virus that is known to mutate less than the coronavirus,” he explains.
For Fonseca, based on these facts, the focus should now be on surveillance to contain this outbreak.
So far, the Ministry of Health reports 14 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Brazil. Ten cases are in São Paulo; two in Rio Grande do Sul, and two in Rio de Janeiro. Of these, 11 are imported, with a history of travel to Europe, and three are autochthonous.
Source: CNN Brasil
