November 2, 2022, 23:05 PM
November 2, 2022, 23:05 PM
Carriers of the monkeypox virus can spread it before the first symptoms appear, indicates a study published on Wednesdayalthough these results have yet to be confirmed.
The “presymptomatic transmission” of monkeypox, whose symptoms are mainly characterized by skin rashes, seems to be “considerable”, according to the authors of the study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
The research was conducted in the UK, one of the first countries in which the disease spread today. This caused, since spring, the appearance of numerous cases of monkeypox in Europe and the American continent, despite the fact that the disease was until then mainly present in several African countries.
Although the epidemic, which has affected almost 80,000 people and killed about thirtyseems to decrease, health authorities remain alert.
Therefore, it is important to know the risk of “silent” transmission, that is, during the incubation period, before the first symptoms appear.
The study authors, led by epidemiologist Thomas Ward, attempted to answer this question by examining data from almost 3,000 British patients. These are mostly men who have had homosexual relationships.
The examination allowed to get an idea of two types of deadlines and to compare them.
The first is the incubation time, during which the patient is a carrier of the virus without knowing it. The second is the period of time that covers from when the symptoms appear in a certain patient until they appear in another person to whom he infected.
The researchers concluded that this second period of time tends to be shorter than the first, which would be an indication that transmission occurred before the first symptoms appeared.
The authors of the study consider that this type of transmission represents more than half of cases and that it can occur up to four days before symptoms appear.
Still, the results have yet to be confirmed by other studies, other scientists said in a commentary, also published in the BMJ.
