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The 2022 Monkeypox outbreak has different signs and symptoms compared to previous years, and compared to infections that are in endemic regions.
Monkeypox usually causes a specific rash after the prodromal symptoms, like severe fatigue, fevers, chills, and body aches, with swollen lymph nodes. But with this monkeypox outbreak, some patients have had genital, rectal, and/or oral lesions, but without the initial prodromal symptoms.
If there is a prodromal period, it typically lasts up to five days.The rash usually starts within 1 to 4 days of after the fever, and lasts for about two to three weeks, although the rash does sometimes appear without the prodromal symptoms.
The number of skin lesions can be anywhere from just a few, to a few thousand.
And in severe cases, they can coalesce until large sections of skin slough off.
The rash tends to involve the face, and can also involve the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
It can also be in the mouth and throat, the inside of your eyelids, and genital areas.
In fact, with this outbreak, some patients had proctitis, meaning inflammation of the prostate gland. In some cases the only lesions found were those in the genital regions.
Lesions progress through several stages:
The painful skin lesions typically start out as 2 to 5 mm diameter spots, and then evolve into papules, then vesicles, and later pustules. They eventually crust over and fall off, about 1-2 weeks after the rash first starts.
Complications
Sometimes monkeypox can cause complications, like secondary bacterial infections, pneumonia, sepsis, and infection of the cornea of the eye, subsequent loss of vision.
During the current outbreak there have been a few unusual presentations.
For instance, some people started with the rash in the genital areas, with later spread to the face and trunk.
In other instances, the lesions never spread to the face or arms or legs.
Patients have also presented with anal and rectal pain, tenesmus, bleeding from the rectum, and tenesmus, which is the feeling that you need to pass stools, even though your bowels are already empty.
Can you die from Monkeypox?
For most people, monkeypox is a self-limited disease with the symptoms lasting 2-4 weeks. The severity of disease depends on age, and underlying health status. Children are more likely to have severe disease compared with adults. The mortality associated with monkeypox has varied. In Central Africa, where they have the worse strain, the fatality rate was around 10%. So far, with this outbreak, there haven’t been any reported deaths in nonendemic countries.
How to diagnose Monkeypox
If the diagnosis of monkeypox is suspected, a lesions will need to be swabbed for PCR testing.
Blood sample testing for monkeypox virus can be used to help make the diagnosis of well, especially if viral testing is not able to be performed.
Patients with monkeypox typically have detectable levels of anti-orthopoxvirus IgM antibody during the period of 4 to 56 days after rash onset.
Treatment
Most infections are mild don’t require treatment in a hospital. Other than medical care, these people should stay at home.
Unexposed people shouldn’t be in the home of an infected person, if possible.
If you’re infected, and you have to be around others, the skin lesions should be covered with clothing to minimize risk of contact with monkeypox lesions, as well as wearing a mask.
Household members providing care to patients with monkeypox should use disposable gloves for direct contact with lesions, and washing of hands afterwards.
You’ll also have to be mindful that clothes, bedsheets, and towels can become contaminated, and will need to be washed accordingly.
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