Volgograd residents told about the risks of the spread of monkeypox in Russia

According to the expert, to date, only isolated cases of the disease have been recorded in Russia - all of them are imported. This year, the first episodes were detected in citizens who arrived from Thailand. The expert draws attention to the fact that the risk of importing the infection persists, so when traveling abroad, primarily to African countries, you need to be especially careful. In these regions, viruses that Europeans have not previously encountered and for which there are no ready-made vaccines are common.

Historically, monkeypox was originally associated with infection from animals. As explained by Ekaterina Nikitina, the first cases of transmission of the virus from person to person began to be recorded relatively recently – this is a trend of the XXI century. As an example, the expert cited an outbreak in 2003 in the United States: then the source of infection was meadow dogs infected from rats imported from Africa. And the main foci of the disease are traditionally recorded in Africa, where people are often infected from monkeys.

The virus is able to spread through contact with an infected person, as well as by airborne droplets. At the same time, according to the expert, there is no risk of developing a pandemic in the world now - due to the limited number of cases. For Russia as a whole, there is no serious threat either. Given the imported nature of the infection and the peculiarities of the Russian climate, the occurrence of a large-scale outbreak is unlikely.

Separately, Ekaterina Nikitina noted that at the moment there is no specific vaccine against monkeypox, but in Russia, scientific developments are underway in this direction.