clinical practice thing , that we ’ re entering into these ecosystems and viruses can then have an opportunity to spread to new hosts . Ebola is another one . That doesn ’ t explain monkeypox per se , but it ’ s part of a pattern of a general rise in infectious diseases overall that is explained by those factors .
Are you concerned that monkeypox will be infecting more people across the globe in the coming months ? Oh , we ’ re going to see this soon . We ’ ve always known this has been a battle we ’ ve had since we came out of the ocean . It ’ s a war that we ’ re always fighting , but as our population increases and becomes more dense , more crowded and we encroach on these ecosystems , we are going to see new infectious diseases move into the community .
I believe that monkeypox doesn ’ t really mutate in the way that COVID does ? Monkeypox is a much more stable type of virus compared to COVID . COVID , HIV and the like are viruses that are very sloppy at replicating or growing themselves . They make mistakes quite often , whereas viruses like monkeypox are actually quite stable .
Would you suggest that monkeypox is less dangerous than COVID , keeping in mind that they ’ re quite different ? We can think of monkeypox as a much less dangerous virus to us compared to something like a respiratory virus like ’ flu or COVID . It ’ s much more stable . It ’ s a virus where you are generally infectious when you have lesions , so that means from an infectious disease control point of view it ’ s much easier to control , whereas with something like COVID people are infectious before they actually have symptoms .
The symptoms are very obvious for monkeypox , so as long as people isolate , and it ’ s actually a long course of isolation for three weeks , and we take the appropriate control measures , this will be fairly self-limiting in terms of outbreaks .
What we really don ’ t want to happen is for this virus to become endemic in Europe , the US or even Australia , even though we ’ ve only had a small number of cases to date . We have a good chance to really control this and eliminate it .
How often is monkeypox fatal ? It ’ s very rarely a fatal disease . What we would often suspect is that the people who are succumbing to this particular virus probably have immune dysfunction or , perhaps , there ’ s a very small group of people whose immune systems are not working well enough to actually control this disease . Any infectious disease can be fatal if your immune system isn ’ t up to scratch .
Generally , healthy adult people and children would see monkeypox off without any particular issue other than the rashes and the sneezing . But , as in every population , we have people who are genetically vulnerable .
The smallpox vaccine protects people for about 85 % against monkeypox . Do you anticipate that we ’ ll be seeing an increase in vaccinations against monkeypox , or maybe new ones ? We ’ re kind of relying on a vaccine against another virus , smallpox , which we actually have eliminated and is closely related . The current vaccine against smallpox seems to work against monkeypox to a degree . It ’ s not perfect .
I think two things are going on . First of all there will be new monkeypox vaccines , no doubt , in development , which will be much higher in terms of their specificity in activity .
Then we ’ ve got a couple of different versions of smallpox vaccination . Some of them are older , and some are newer . We ’ re trying to source newer vaccines that have less side effects , as is everyone else in the world . There ’ s a limited supply right now .
No one needs to rush out and get vaccinated against smallpox to protect themselves against monkeypox . The authorities will do what we call ring vaccination so that close contacts and people who are infected themselves will get vaccinated if it ’ s early enough in the infection cycle .
That will put a barrier around the infected person to prevent the virus taking hold . I think we ’ ve probably got a limited supply of vaccines right now , and we ’ re looking to secure more for Australia .
It doesn ’ t sound like you ’ re very concerned . Why is it that the World Health Organization called it a global health emergency ? That was against their expert panel ’ s advice , but I think the main thing about
“ We are going to see new infectious diseases move into the community .
the chief health officer ’ s call in Australia and also the WHO ’ s call is that it puts in place a lot more monitoring and tracking . What they will not want to happen is for this to become endemic throughout other parts of the world because it can be controlled and isolated .
One of the concerns is people who are HIV positive , in the men who have sex with men group , will be more susceptible to monkeypox as well , and so that obviously attacks their immune system . This is not even in the same sort of solar system as COVID in terms of public health concerns , where COVID will become our leading cause of death by the end of the year in Australia .
I think we ’ ll take the time now while it ’ s such a small problem to try and eliminate it out of Australia other than , of course , imported cases , which we get from infectious diseases all the time .
For the WHO , it ’ s about making sure it doesn ’ t become endemic in Europe and North America .
What do you think we need at the moment to reduce the spread in Australia ? We had a good public health response , so we obviously need people to come forward who identify as having or suspect they might have monkeypox . We might see some resistance in that area because of the isolation period and the fact that people are sick of isolation from COVID . Hopefully that ’ s something we don ’ t see because it ’ s easily controlled and treated and , ultimately , we want the public or those populations who might have been exposed to do the right thing .
From a medical point of view , we want to make sure we secure more vaccines because that will be our most effective public health response . There are drugs to treat the virus , but that would only be in people who are very sick and have poor immune response .
Getting a good supply of next generation vaccine is something I know the health department are working on . I think otherwise , don ’ t panic . This is not in the same ballpark as COVID . ■
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