Covid is still here, but another virus is coming too

Monkeypox is already inflicting havoc despite the coronavirus's defeat - at least for the time being. Lithuania is another option.

Most Lithuanians were caught aback when a new deadly virus, monkeypox, was found, expecting it would wreak havoc on lives once more.

"What dreadful times we live in," Vera Alejnien, an elderly resident of Klaipeda, Lithuania's third largest city, lamented. "There was the COVID pandemic, then there were the hidden constraints, then there was the conflict (in Ukraine), and now there's a new scourge."

She's practically given up watching television due to "exhaustion" from the recent bad news.«I still listen to the radio, but it's on a station that only plays old music and reads the news at certain times,» she added.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic virus that can be transmitted from one animal to another. It produces symptoms that are comparable to those seen in past episodes of smallpox, but it is less severe clinically.

"Lithuania is continually monitoring how monkeypox spreads in Europe," Lithuania's deputy health minister, Aurimas Pekauskas, told the Lithuanian press this week. The monkeypox virus can be passed from person to person by intimate interaction with sores, body fluids, respiratory droplets, and contaminated surfaces such as mattresses. Monkeypox takes 6 to 13 days to incubate, as per the World Health Organization, although it can take up to 21 days. According to the deputy minister, Lithuania and its public health professionals are ready for an epidemic of the hazardous virus, as well as monitoring and assessing the situation in countries where it has already spread. 

«At this point, we are only seeing a few cases of the disease, which is well-known among epidemiologists around the world and does not appear to pose the same threat as the previous pandemic,» the deputy minister said. 

The European Commission, he claims, has already launched the HERA mechanism, which was previously employed during the COVID-19 epidemic. «Vaccination is regarded by European experts in the same light as it was during the coronavirus pandemic. What proportion of immunizations are available in each country, and how can vaccines be purchased? We're also thinking about how many vaccines would be needed if they were purchased.» Pekauskas resumed speaking.

Those who were immunized against the pox before 1980 were in luck.

According to Lithuanian media, he stated, "It is believed that the gunfire can still provide protection. "As of May 24, the WHO had documented 92 laboratory-confirmed and 28 suspected cases in 12 countries where smallpox is uncommon. As of May 25, the virus had been found in eight European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. 

It's the first time infection chains have emerged in Europe with no epidemiological ties to the disease's endemic areas in West and Central Africa. No one has died as far as we know as a result of the illness. Monkey smallpox, according to Saulius aplinskas, chairman of the Lithuanian Centre for Communicable Diseases and AIDS (ULAC), is the most deadly for people with insufficient immunity, with a 3 percent mortality rate.

«So far, two virus strains have crossed Africa. One of them kills roughly 10% of the continent's inhabitants, while the other just kills 1%. The latest strain, which is sweeping Europe, has a lower death rate. Estimates suggest that up to 3% of the population died. It should be mentioned, however, that the sickness is frequently milder and resembles the flu in healthy, young people. People with compromised immune systems are more prone to the disease, whether owing to aging or underlying medical conditions,» he said.

Monkeypox symptoms include fever, exhaustion, headaches, and muscle aches. A rash appears three days after the commencement of the symptoms. According to scientists, monkeypox virus is separated into two clades: West African and Congo Basin (Central African). In 1970, the first human case was a little kid from the Democratic Republic of Congo.According to a Lithuanian public health specialist, the disease's contagiousness is far lower than, say, COVID-19.Rolanda Lingien, the director of the Vilnius Department of the National Centre for Public Health, used social media to increase awareness about monkeypox.

«Could you tell me how you arrived to the conclusion that I should strive to eradicate the monkeypox as quickly as possible?» Smallpox was always assumed to have spread beyond the 11 African countries where it was found, but a recent study shows that this is no longer the case. The outbreak has already affected a number of European countries, as well as the United States, Australia, Canada, and Israel. It'll only be a matter of time until we get our first case,» she remarked on Facebook. 

«At this time, it's vital not to disregard hand hygiene,» the public health expert added. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Lithuania had one of the highest excess fatality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Lithuania, for example, additional deaths increased by 32% in September, 13% in August, and 9% in July.COVID-19 and the subsequent loss of health-care services, according to aplinskas, are two variables that lead to higher mortality. Lithuania stuck out to him for a number of reasons, he explained. «I survived WWII and the COVID, so monkeypox isn't going to kill me,» Alejnien jokes.