The president of the Brazilian Society of Virology and researcher at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Flávio Fonseca, believes that the national campaign to prevent monkeypox, started this Monday (22) by the Ministry of Health, is “essential”, but done late. In an interview with CNN Radio he said that if it had started earlier, we might not have nearly 4,000 cases in the country.
“It is already a consensus that one of the most important and effective ways of fighting a disease is communication, correct knowledge. The launch of this campaign based on the awareness of the population in relation to forms of transmission, to what the disease is, is extremely important. I just think it came at a late moment, the World Health Organization (WHO) had already declared this disease as an international public health emergency a month ago,” he recalled.
Fonseca says that, at the present time, when there are no vaccines or medicines available for all countries, it is precisely knowledge that can stop the transmission of smallpox from monkeys. “A person showing signs of the disease needs to be able to identify that as a possibility of being monkeypox, and seek medical attention so they can isolate themselves and cut the chain of transmission,” she explained.
The virologist said that one of the possibilities for monkeypox to stop being a disease restricted to the African continent is the opening of borders, two years after the coronavirus pandemic. “What many virologists claim, and I agree, may have been a cause of [da monkeypox] is that, after the most serious moments of Covid-19, societies opened up again, even in an exaggerated way, because we were trapped for a long time, which may have caused the spread of smallpox”, he said.
Given this scenario, the specialist does not rule out the emergence of new diseases. Globalization, world population growth and human action are some factors that can lead to the transmission of various viruses.
“This is a reality that we will have to live with because it is the result of social conditions, of population growth. It is no coincidence that Covid-19 emerged from man’s contact with nature, just like Monkeypox. We have human diseases that have spread, like measles. However, there is an explanation, which is the decrease in vaccination coverage. In the case of diseases that are not exclusively human, such as Covid and Monkeypox, they arise because they are zoonoses, they circulate in animals. When man invades these places, to do extractivism, to walk, he is infected and brings that to the city”, he explained.
Source: CNN Brasil
