Monkeypox outbreak 'may have been sparked by sex at raves', says WHO expert

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The outbreak of monkeypox in Europe may have been sparked by sexual activity at raves, according to a leading adviser to the World Health Organisation.

Dr David Heymann, who formerly headed the WHO’s emergencies department, said the leading theory to explain the spread of the disease was sexual transmission at raves in Europe.Monkeypox has not previously triggered widespread outbreaks beyond Africa, where it is endemic in animals. “We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,” said Dr Heymann.That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates and outbreaks have not spilled across borders.Health officials say most of the known cases in Europe have been among men who have sex with men, but anyone can be infected through close contact with a sick person, their clothing or bedsheets.Scientists say it will be difficult to establish whether the spread is being driven by sex or merely close contact.“By nature, sexual activity involves intimate contact, which one would expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, whatever a person’s sexual orientation and irrespective of the mode of transmission,” said Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London.On Monday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s director, Andrea Ammon, said “the likelihood of further spread of the virus through close contact, for example during sexual activities among persons with multiple sexual partners, is considered to be high”.The WHO has recorded more than 90 cases