“No reason to be worried about a large-scale epidemic,” says infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe

After the discovery in France of the first case of the new variant, the head of the infectious diseases department at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris wants to be reassuring. “These are not viruses that evolve as we have seen with” Covid-19, she believes.

“We are not worried about large-scale transmission of the virus, we must take the necessary precautions, but from there to there being a generalized epidemic, we are still far from the situation“, assures Franceinfo infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe, head of the infectious diseases department at Saint-Antoine hospital, after the discovery of a first case of the new Mpox variant (formerly called monkeypox).

This case was discovered in Brittany, indicates the Ministry of Health. The infected person did not travel to Central Africa, but was in contact with two people returning from this region of Africa. “The few cases that there have been in Europe [Suède, Allemagne, Belgique et Royaume-Uni] call for vigilance, but for the moment no reason to be worried about a large-scale epidemic“, continues Karine Lacombe.

There were two “different epidemics“, explains the head of the infectious diseases department at Saint-Antoine hospital.”the one we had which was due to a variant called clad 2 which is rather native to West Africa and clad 1 in particular 1b which is native to East Africa. These are not viruses that evolve as we have seen with“Covid-19.

“The majority of contaminations occur through skin contact, it is a contagious disease, but not at all through the air.“, as for Covid-19,”Between vaccination, limiting sexual contact and preventing skin contact, we can absolutely limit transmission. To date, we have no reason to believe that we will have an extension of serious forms which would require heavy hospital treatment.“.

“At this stage, it is difficult to say that there is a global extension of Mpox, however, we must be very vigilant. We have an effective prevention tool, which is vaccination. It is a disease that must call on all doctors to be vigilant. The main symptoms are, such as an initial viral infection, fever, joint pain, there will be a rash, localized or potentially generalized if the person has lowered immune defenses“.