Monkeypox - new epidemiological threat? Review of the current literature

JAROSZ, Dominika, GRUDZIŃSKA, Aleksandra, DUDZIŃSKA, Paulina, MILANOWSKA, Małgorzata & TSITKO, Hanna. Monkeypox - new epidemiological threat? Review of the current literature. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2023;13(3):128-133. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2023.13.03.018 https://apcz.umk.pl/JEHS/article/view/41682 https://zenodo.org/record/7569258 The journal has had 40 points in Ministry of Education and Science of Poland parametric evaluation. Annex to the announcement of the Minister of Education and Science of December 21, 2021. No. 32343. Has a Journal's Unique Identifier: 201159. Scientific disciplines assigned: Physical Culture Sciences (Field of Medical sciences and health sciences); Health Sciences (Field of Medical Sciences and Health Sciences). Punkty Ministerialne z 2019 - aktualny rok 40 punktów. Załącznik do komunikatu Ministra Edukacji i Nauki z dnia 21 grudnia 2021 r. Lp. 32343. Posiada Unikatowy Identyfikator Czasopisma: 201159. Przypisane dyscypliny naukowe: Nauki o kulturze fizycznej (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu); Nauki o zdrowiu (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu). © The Authors 2023; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 03.01.2023. Revised: 17.01.2023. Accepted: 25.01.2023. MONKEYPOX - NEW EPIDEMIOLOGICAL THREAT? REVIEW OF THE CURRENT LITERATURE MAŁPIA OSPA - NOWE ZAGROŻENIE EPIDEMIOLOGICZNE? PRZEGLĄD AKTUALNEJ LITERARURY Dominika Jarosz1 ORCID: 0000-0003-1933-0600, d-jagiello@wp.pl Aleksandra Grudzińska1 ORCID: 0000-0002-1024-176X, aleksandra-gru@o2.pl Paulina Dudzińska1 ORCID: 0000-0001-8314-3784, paulla134@gmail.com Małgorzata Milanowska1 ORCID 0000-0003-1713-3304, m.milanowska@yahoo.com Hanna Tsitko1 ORCID: 0000-0002-2079-7382, htsitko@gmail.com 1Medical University of Lublin ABSTRACT The mokeypox is zoonotic disease caused by an orthopoxvirus, which was first isolated and identified in 1959 among captive monkeys transported to Copenhagen, Denmark from Africa for research purposes. Monkeypox in humans was initially diagnosed in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and then it has spread to other regions of Africa. The monkeypox cases in Africa were neglected by the scientific community for past decades till 2022, when thousands of cases were reported from nonendemic countries around Europe and in the western hemisphere. Therefore monkeypox has recently been labelled as a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO. Monkeypox virus is believed to have several modes of transmission, all of which are associated with direct or indirect contact with infected animals or infected humans. The diagnosis of monkeypox infection is based on the history, clinical symptoms and laboratory tests such as PCR.The illness begins with nonspecific symptoms such as fever, lethargy, lymphadenopathy, myalgias and then it occures the rash first on the face and then across the body which lasts for 2–4 weeks. Most cases of monkeypox are mild and self-limited disease, which require only supportive treatments. However in very severe cases antiviral medications such as tecovirimat may be administered. Smallpox vaccination has been estimated to provide 85% cross-protection against monkeypox infection. The main problem is there is a huge population born only after the discontinuation of the smallpox vaccination campaign with lack of cross-protective immunity. The question is - the monkeypox is only old neglected foe or a new epidemiological threat? Key words: monkeypox, tecovirimat, monkeypox outbreak 2022, smallpox vaccine, smallpox