Monkey pox.

I am adopting head in sand position on this, I really cannot worry about another thing which is out of my control.

We weren't worried about Covid at the start. It crept in like this creeping in. Let's hope it will creep back out again.

They were talking about drawing parallels with covid, and using what we have learned to deal with this, if needed.
It doesn't inspire much confidence for me. (Doom and gloom merchant that I am)

It takes prolonged close contact to spread, so they say.

The doc on TV today said that the smallpox vaccine gives 85% protection against monkeypox. Most of us had a smallpox injection as children. Does that last for life?

Monkeypox is very different to Covid, and if you're not exchanging bodily fluids with someone with open sores I think you are pretty safe. As far as I can see at the moment no one is suggesting it is spread by aerosol, like with Covid.

Interestingly I've just been reading that the US has stockpiled vaccines for monkeypox over the last 5 years after the number of cases in the US has been increasing.

There haven't been smallpox vaccines in the UK since 1971. It was discontinued as smallpox had been eradicated.

I saw that it takes prolonged contact with someone to catch it.
They are talking about dealing with those within the circle of contacts in order to prevent any spread, and hopefully, stop it more or less in its tracks.

I read that you need skin to skin contact, which will very often mean having sex with someone infected.

"by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding" from the W.H.O

Exactly MA. Respiratory droplets. Just like covid.

Back to masks I guess. I haven't had a smallpox vaccine.

Kate1949

The doc on TV today said that the smallpox vaccine gives 85% protection against monkeypox. Most of us had a smallpox injection as children. Does that last for life?

I was wondering that too.

Of course, the smallpox vaccination was discontinued in about 1971 so anyone under the age of about 50 won't have had it.
Smallpox had been eradicated by then.

AreWeThereYet

There haven't been smallpox vaccines in the UK since 1971. It was discontinued as smallpox had been eradicated.

Sorry, repeated your post AreWeThereYet

Let's hope it is something and nothing, but I heard that we need a track and trace system in order to contact people who may have had contact.

Rather alarming, given the last attempt at the world beating one.

I'm with you GG; too much to worry about as it is and certainly don't need anymore.

Not quite like Covid:

Human-to-human transmission is thought to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required. Other human-to-human methods of transmission include direct contact with body fluids or lesion material, and indirect contact with lesion material, such as through contaminated clothing or linens.

Nobody has suggested it is anything like covid.
Lets hope the trace system, if needed, is not like the covid one, too.

Missing the point really - but isn't 'pustule' the most revolting word - yuk

Yep.

Remember, we've had track-and-trace-type systems for many years in order to track contacts of people with sexually-transmitted diseases, which monkey pox seems to be. (There has been talk that the systems already in place would have been more efficient at dealing with covid, but of course they were/are run by Public Health departments, not by Tory donors...)

I believe that, unlike SARS-Covid, Monkey Pox virus spreads by droplets, such as the saliva from a cough, rather than tiny air-borne aerosols as in Covid.

So unless you're unlucky enough to have an infected person cough saliva droplets at you, you should be better off than with the aerosol borne Covid virus.

Also of course, spread by direct contact and materials, i.e. infected bedding of an person who is infected.

COVID is infectious. Monkey pox is contagious, so unless you make some kind of skin to skin contact with someone suffering from it, you should be OK.

Frankly I just cannot be a***d to get worried about another disease. I am panicked out.

Kate1949

The doc on TV today said that the smallpox vaccine gives 85% protection against monkeypox. Most of us had a smallpox injection as children. Does that last for life?

Did we have smallpox vaccines as children? I know DH and I had them in 1973 before going to Russia and have never been so ill in our lives. Yet I’ve read today that there are rarely side effects with the vaccine.

Smallpox vaccination, a procedure that had been made compulsory in England and Wales in 1853 was discontinued in 1971 The chief reason for the end of smallpox vaccination seems fairly obvious. The disease had been all but eradicated, and had ceased to be endemic in the United Kingdom since the 1930s.
Perhaps a rethink is called for.