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Mpox - news and discussion

Yes, fair enough, though I think I'd prefer not to find out if my vintage anti-bodies are able to deal with a fit new virus that only emerged a few months ago!
 
There is evidence to suggest that for some decades after the original smallpox global eradication programme vaccination monkeypox spread was suppressed to degrees and it is only now, with significant numbers of populations unvaccinated against any member of this genus, that an opportunity for monkeypox has arisen.
DOI:10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.04.062.

There is also some research evidence that there may still be (at least for some people) degrees of T cell immunity to smallpox and by extension other orthopoxviruses, such as monkeypox, up to 75 years after the administration of those original smallpox vaccinations (eg Dryvax). Though it should be pointed out that others in the field dispute this.
DOI:10.1038/nm917.

In the current outbreak, UK epidemiological data may hint at degrees of reduction amongst those who received childhood smallpox vaccination before and up to around 1970 (the picture wouldn't be clear anyway because after 1948, and up to the termination of the UK programme in 1971, vaccination was optional and uptake dwindled towards the end of that period). Possibly it could still confer some level of cellular immunity, perhaps sufficient to curb an infectious episode and limit disease development for some immunocompetents in that cohort.
Age and gender distribution of confirmed and highly probable monkeypox cases in England as of 1 August 2022 (UKHSA).
Obviously, a more recent vaccination would offer a better chance of reduction in disease progression.
 

Stocks of the vaccine have run out in Brighton. None more due till the end of next month. So 6+ weeks away.
Booked appointments still going ahead, but none new being offered until then.
(Oddly the BBC have illustrated their article with a photo of Guy's hospital 80k from Brighton)

Glad noone has ever done a smallpox terrorism. Would the secret government stockpiles have been sufficient for that?
 
Glad noone has ever done a smallpox terrorism. Would the secret government stockpiles have been sufficient for that?
Rumour is the USA does, but as a bio weapon it has a problem it would eventually find its way back to you as well.

Appealing to my (unique) sense of humour, is the idea of monkeypox terrorism, whereby jihadist training instead of learning about AK47s or crashing planes, the jihadists have to train to sneak into western gay or BDSM clubs - the mind boggles at that thought 😳
 
It’s not new, it’s been around in Africa for 50 odd years.
Hasn't there been a suggestion that the version linked to the outbreak in US and Europe may have evolved or mutated in some way compared to the ancestral versions that are still found in Africa?
 
The current outbreak is clearly related to a clade from Nigeria and may have been undergoing human-to-human transmission since perhaps (at least) 2017.
Current MPXV outbreak clade tree, 1971-present.
For a DNA virus it appears to have picked up a lot of mutations in a very short period of time. However, rather than these being mutagenic 'attempts' by the virus to evolve around and evade the human immune system, they might be battle scars - the consequence of human immune systems inflicting damage on the virus in order to counter an infection (action of the enzyme APOBEC3).

e2a: WHO have officially adopted a new monkeypox naming scheme. Clade I is that originating from the Congo Basin/Central Africa (most pathogenic). Clade II is that from West Africa, split into two sub-clades of which Clade IIb is the variant driving the current (2022) outbreak.
 
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Selfish fucking plague rat piece of shit.



How in the ever-living fuck can you go out in public when you have visible fucking pustules on your face and arms?! What an absolute scumbag. If you're that fucking desperate to stuff your stupid fat face with McDonald's crap, you can get that shit delivered.
 
Selfish fucking plague rat piece of shit.



How in the ever-living fuck can you go out in public when you have visible fucking pustules on your face and arms?! What an absolute scumbag. If you're that fucking desperate to stuff your stupid fat face with McDonald's crap, you can get that shit delivered.

And it's selling a song??
 

New strain.

Fuck all monkeypox in the UK, now 2 separate strains. How curious.

“UKHSA and the NHS have well-established and robust infection control procedures for dealing with cases of imported infectious disease and these will be strictly followed. The risk to the general public is very low,” said Dr Sophia Maki, incident director at the UKHSA.

When have we heard this line before?
 
Stick you 'how curious' bullshit. Since the case in question is linked to travel to a specific area where monkeypox is known to be endemic in various animals, there is nothing too weird about this story that could be used to support your typical, tedious insinuations about man-made possibilities at this stage. But we do have to wait for further information about the strain in question before getting further into that sort of detail properly.
 
Stick you 'how curious' bullshit. Since the case in question is linked to travel to a specific area where monkeypox is known to be endemic in various animals, there is nothing too weird about this story that could be used to support your typical, tedious insinuations about man-made possibilities at this stage. But we do have to wait for further information about the strain in question before getting further into that sort of detail properly.

Fuck off.
 
Outbreaks are not common in the UK, let alone ones with different strains.

Strains change over time. That isn’t a new phenomena. The new thing is the length of this spread. Due to a strain change or a reduction in pox type immunity due to vaccine hesitancy? I’m not up on the research - if anyone has any sci links post them up pls.
 
Fuck off.
No chance, not on subjects involving infectious diseases and public health. You dont get to casually chuck 'how curious' into the story without question. If I've guessed incorrectly as to what you were getting at then feel free to explain what you actually meant. Perhaps I've misremembered that it was you who previously enjoyed imagining the original outbreak was a Russian attack.
 
You’re a programmer, not an infectious disease expert.
I'm an amateur, but I dont believe that professionals and highly qualified experts should have a monopoly on talking about subjects. I'm not sure I'd rank my programming skills too highly either, I could probably make fewer huge errors when talking at length about certain infectious diseases than I could when talking about a variety of programming subjects.

I'm genuinely sorry I was rude to you earlier. I got too frustrated with the 'how curious' thing. I believe you have every right to express yourself about this subject, just as much as me or anyone else, but I'd find it much less frustrating if you at least explained exactly what you were getting at rather than just vaguely insinuating something.
 
I was lucky enough to get vaccinated for MPX here in Berlin, which is one of the biggest hotspots for the disease. I've had friends who have had it and they said that even the supposedly mild versions they suffered was one of the worst things they've been through. Many of my friends can't get the vaccine now. Germany went about it stupidly in their ever bureaucratic zeal to do things "correctly". Berlin has two thirds of the German cases but they divided up the vaccine equally between federal states and sent it to many places where it's not even needed. Then it stayed in fridges for a couple of months and during the gay pride season (the perfect super spreader opportunity) because of another bureaucratic bungle. This was all over the news at the start, then it turned out that it "just" (well mostly) affects promiscuous gay men (again) and it dropped out of the news . Too little is being done about it, only when it makes a serious impact on the general (heterosexual) population will this be taken seriously.
 
Not seen any great announcement but NHS is now making second doses of the vaccine available (to those in the target group who’ve had their first).
At least in London anyway.

Appointments going fast so check your local clinic if you need one.
 
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