‘Monkeypox can spread during face-to-face interaction’

A quick explainer by Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi on dos and don'ts
How can people contract Monkeypox, since the recent case detected had no travel history?
It can be spread in different ways. Although human to human transmission was rare in the past, respiratory droplets are the main carriers of the virus. So you stand a risk of contamination if the infected is within your breathable range and with whom you have a face-to-face interaction. It can be transmitted by direct contact with body fluids, lesion material and also by contact with contaminated clothing or linen of an infected person. Intimate sexual relationships can accelerate transmission. Then there is animal to human transmission through bites or scratches of infected animals like rodents(rats) and monkeys. Pregnant women can also transmit the virus to their foetus.

What is the disease management protocol once the person has contracted Monkeypox? Should it be managed like chicken pox?
Isolate the person with suspected Monkeypox, avoid close contact with the suspected patient, avoid contact with his/her dresses and belongings. The confusion happens because infected patients present non-specific flu-like illness, including fever, headache and backache. It is not until the first lesions develop on the tongue and in the mouth before spreading to the skin that you sense the nature of the disease. The lesions, which fill with pus, remain for five to seven days before beginning to crust. They typically scab over by the end of the second week and remain for about another week before starting to fall off. An infected person is contagious from the start of the flu-like symptoms until all scabs have fallen off. In many cases, lesions are only seen in the genital area or around the anus.