Pune: ‘Those vaccinated for smallpox are immune to Mpox’: AIDS Society of India president emeritus Dr Ishwar Gilada

“Infections are mild… fever, rashes and lymph node enlargement. Deaths in 0-10 per cent cases. In 2022, I labelled it as a sexually transmitted disease…In 100 per cent cases, it is sexually transmitted, 99 per cent in the community of men having sex with men (MSM),” he said.

There are no parallels with Covid-19, Gilada said. “It is not spread by aerosols. Extremely remote possibility of spread through droplets, or surfaces. Masks will not provide any protection from Mpox,” he said.

While there is no proven treatment, drugs like tecovirimat have been tried, the expert said, adding that Jynneos vaccine can prevent Mpox. “Those vaccinated for smallpox are immune to Mpox, hence people above 44 will not get it,” he said, stressing that India’s strength in vaccine production should be positively exploited.

Experts like Dr Madhukar Pai, inaugural chair of the Department of Global and Public Health at McGill University, Canada, and several others have taken to X, calling for urgent authentic global solidarity, equity and urgent support for African countries to mitigate Mpox outbreaks.

In their report in the British Medical Journal, both Pai and Ifedayo Adetifa, a Nigerian infectious diseases specialist and Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote, “Following WHO’s declaration of this Mpox outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern, rich nations may resort to travel bans against the affected African nations, rather than offer genuine support. We worry about a resurgence of stigma and racism aimed at African nations as we saw during the Omicron wave and 2022 Mpox outbreak. We must not repeat the mistakes of HIV, Ebola or Covid.”