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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/health-beauty/40018907

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s move to rename the monkeypox virus will help prevent cultural and social discrimination, the vice chair of the Public Health Commission said on Sunday.

Chalermchai Boonyaleephan said renaming monkeypox is much like renaming Covid-19, which was initially called the “Wuhan virus”. Then US president Donald Trump also began calling it the “Chinese virus”, sparking a conflict between the two countries.

He said that WHO’s system of renaming Covid-19 variants based on the Greek alphabet has also helped people forget the country of origin.

“Once people become familiar with the Greek alphabet, they forget the origin. Like Omicron variant was originally found in South Africa,” he said.

He added that it would be interesting to see what Thailand will call monkeypox once it is renamed.

The move to rename the virus came after monkeys were attacked recently in Brazil over fears of transmission. In a press conference last week, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris pointed out that the transmission is between humans and the virus came from rodents.

The WHO also renamed the two variants of the virus on August 8. Now the Central African or Congo Basin clade and the West African clade will be referred to as Clade I and Clade II respectively. WHO also decided that Clade II comprises two distinct subclades.

Published : August 15, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/health-beauty/40018788

A senior virologist revealed four important facts about the LayV virus that was found recently in China.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Dr Anan Jongkaewwattana, director of the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology’s Veterinary Health Innovation and Management Research Group, said that a Chinese research team had published a study before the news came out.

He summarised four interesting facts from the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

1. LayV’s full name is Langya henipavirus and it is in the paramyxovirus family, the same as measles and mumps viruses.

He said that there are also severe viruses in this family, such as Nipah and Hendra, which have a high fatality rate. However, their spread has been limited because the host dies quickly.

2. The first human patient was found in China at the end of 2018 and around 35 people have been infected so far.

Interestingly, there was no cluster of spread or group, which indicates that the virus might not be able to transmit from human to human yet.

3. The scientists suspected that shrews were the most obvious carriers of the virus. However, other animals could also be a source.

4. The symptoms are similar to influenza, such as fever, aches, and fatigue. The virus could also impair the functioning of the liver and kidneys in some patients, but there was no instance of death yet.

Anan concluded that humans could contact the LayV virus from animals while there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission yet. Patients also usually have weak symptoms and there were no deaths yet.

He accused the media of sensationalising facts about the Nipah virus and making the disease look dangerous in order to sell news.

Published : August 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/health-beauty/40018783

A top virologist has said that human beings will have to live with Covid-19 forever, though the virus would be less severe as we would build immunity against it.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Dr Yong Poovorawan of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine, said it was a natural law, citing several diseases that had spread in the past, including smallpox and plague.

He said that the available knowledge and the medical field at that time were not modern as in the current era, but humanity could still survive until today as the pandemics did not last for a long time like Covid-19.

Explaining the survival instinct, Yong explained that once upon a time rabbits used to destroy a lot of crops so humans used a severe virus to kill rabbits and that became an epidemic for them.

A lot of rabbits died but some of them built immunity to the virus and survived to reproduce in large numbers as in the past.

Looking back at history, he said that most disease outbreaks lasted only a year with a lot of cases, such as cholera or the Spanish flu. It later became the seasonal flu but there were a lot of fatalities, accounting for around 1 per cent of the population, especially vulnerable groups.

He said that almost everyone is likely to get influenza once in three years and all three — influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2) and influenza B — within nine years.

Therefore, children aged under 9 who have not received any influenza vaccines should get the vaccine twice at one-month intervals, he suggested.

However, those aged over 9 who had been infected with influenza before should get a booster dose.

Yong said that it would be similar with Covid-19, as most people were likely to be infected in three years.

Currently, the medical field has improved a lot. Most people will be infected with the disease, like influenza. He added that most viral diseases in children are only severe in vulnerable groups.

As people have been fighting against Covid-19 for two and a half years, humans have developed, treated, and prevented the virus. People are aware that vaccination cannot stop the spread of the virus, but it will reduce the severity of the symptoms.

He added that a lot of people would be infected in later phases, which could be many tens of thousands of cases. Counting the number of those who had only mild or no symptoms and did not take a test, it could be a hundreds of thousands of cases.

Therefore, the problem lies with vulnerable groups as the number of hospitalisations is around 2,000 to 3,000 with 20 to 30 deaths.

He concluded that Covid-19 will stay with us forever, but we will be able to live with it because it will be less severe while we would have better immunity due to vaccines, previous infections and better medicines.

Meanwhile, the number of fatalities will decrease and will be the same as other respiratory diseases.

Published : August 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/life/health-beauty/40018740

An expert virologist talked about how Covid-19 has changed Thailand in the past two-and-a-half years.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Dr Yong Poovorawan of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine said while some people preferred vaccines, some did not and they would not listen to reason. Therefore, Thais lost a lot of opportunities, especially in the early stages when vaccines were limited.

He noted that the severity of the disease has dropped over time as most people are now fully vaccinated even though the virus keeps mutating.

Thais are fully capable of creating innovations, Yong said. Several innovations have proved practical but some have been created without understanding, such as a virus filter.

A unit of the virus is measured in nanometres, while PM 2.5 fine dust is measured in micrometres. These two units are different from each other by a thousand times, the virologist said.

Yong explained that the Covid-19 virus is 120nm, which is 20 times smaller than PM 2.5 dust particles.

The doctor said someone had asked him to test the virus filter with the actual virus, but he said it could not be done and only a simulation could be carried out.

He also mentioned that there was a caller who woke him from sleep at 3 or 4am, claiming to have an “amazing herb” that could cure Covid-19. Yong said he did not find that funny.

Published : August 10, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/health-beauty/40018670

The smallpox vaccine that most people received as children have enough immunity against monkeypox for at least 88 years, an immunologist said.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Dr Chontavat Suvanpiyasiri, a dermato-immunologist at Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital, cited a study published in the American Journal of Medicine in 2008.

The study, “Immunity from Smallpox Vaccine Persists for Decades”, is available on https://bit.ly/3vOZZVp.

The study covered 246 people aged between 13 and 88, of whom 209 had been vaccinated against smallpox at least once, eight had got smallpox as children, while 29 had no history of infection or vaccination.

The study found that those vaccinated or previously infected recorded no drop in antibodies against the disease for up to 88 years. It also found that 97 per cent of the participants had enough immunity against smallpox.

Hence, the study concluded that most people who have been vaccinated against smallpox are immune to monkeypox, while those who received a booster jab did not have significantly higher immunity.

Published : August 09, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40018627

An expert virologist has warned people that getting a Covid-19 infection does not mean they will not get infected again.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Dr Yong Poovorawan said most people are at risk of getting reinfected within three months after recovering, though some former patients were reinfected after just two months.

He was citing the Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology study on 40 people who were infected for a second time.

The study covered reinfected patients with mild symptoms as well as those with severe symptoms, though most had mild symptoms. Patients who had been prescribed the antiviral Favipiravir during their first infection received symptomatic treatment in the second round.

He added that no patients developed severe symptoms or pneumonia or a lower than normal oxygen level.

Dr Yong said he believes that immunity derived from vaccines and previous infections kept the symptoms mild. Also, he said, many people got vaccinated after their first infection, and this also reduced the severity of the second infection.

Covid-19 is like other respiratory diseases, which means recovered patients can get infected again after three months so they should receive a booster dose when appropriate, he said.

He also advised unvaccinated people to get a jab within three months of being infected, and those who have received two jabs or more should get a booster shot six months after being infected.

Published : August 08, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40018576

A top virologist shed some light on why monkeypox patients develop pus-filled cysts on their bodies, especially in the genital area.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Dr Yong Poovorawan said the disease had first surfaced in Africa, where it was transmitted to humans from animals like rodents. The disease was then spread among humans via direct contact or the respiratory system.

The disease can enter the bloodstream and lymph nodes via a scratch on the skin, and patients can develop fever, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes.

After that, the patients develop cysts on the external parts of their body like arms, legs and head before it spreads to the torso.

Yong said 98 per cent of monkeypox patients found outside Africa are men, and 40 per cent developed boils on their genitals or nearby.

Recent studies show that monkeypox is most often transmitted sexually, and Dr Yong said that though most patients are male adults at present, the disease will soon spread to women and become difficult to control in the future.

However, he said, it is still 100 times more difficult to contract monkeypox when compared to Covid-19, so only people in high-risk groups will be infected in the early phase.

Published : August 06, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40018549

A booster shot provides the same level of immunity against Covid-19 to people whose first two shots have been either inactivated or mRNA vaccines, a top virologist said.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Dr Yong Poovorawan said he and his team have been studying the administration of Covid-19 vaccines in Thailand for the past year and a half.

His latest study, titled “Immunogenicity of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine as a third dose (booster) following two doses of different primary series regimens in Thailand”, was published in the National Library of Medicine (NIH) website (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35920191/) on Wednesday.

The subjects of the study were people who had received an mRNA booster shot (Pfizer) after receiving the first two jabs in Thailand.

He said people who had received two shots of the inactivated vaccines, especially Sinovac, developed similar immunity against Covid-19 as those whose first two jabs had been mRNA vaccines.

His team also studied the effects of different boosters on people whose first two vaccines were a combination of Sinovac and AstraZeneca.

This study, titled “Effects of boosted mRNA and adenoviral-vectored vaccines on immune responses to omicron BA.1 and BA.2 following the heterologous CoronaVac/AZD1222 vaccination”, was published on the NIH website (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35924475/) on Thursday.

This study shows that all booster doses provide similar immunity against the BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants.

Dr Yong and his team also studied the administration of the India-produced Covovax and the US-manufactured Novavax vaccines as a booster.

Results of this study showed that those who have received two doses of these inactivated vaccines had developed similar immunity as those who had received two mRNA jabs.

In the post, Dr Yong said that so far, 20 studies led by him and his team had been published in international medical journals and some governments implemented his suggestions. For instance, he said, the Public Health Ministry here adopted the mix-and-match vaccine formula, while the World Health Organisation based its advice on some of his studies.

Published : August 05, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40018503

The Public Health Ministry has highlighted how to diagnose and treat monkeypox, with the Medical Services Department announcing guidelines.

It said monkeypox is not severe and patients could recover without hospitalisation, but it could be severe for people with low immunity and children.

The fatality rate is below 5 per cent while the disease could stay in one’s body from two to four weeks. The incubation period is around seven to 21 days.

Symptoms

Patients get fever and rash first. The rash starts as macules before evolving into papules, vesicles and pustules, respectively, and then turn into scabs. The amount is relative to the severity of the disease.

Most get infected after coming into direct contact with a patient’s rashes or secretions.

Those at risk have these symptoms:

1. Fever higher than 38 degrees Celcius or a fever with one other symptom, such as sore throat, headache, muscle ache, back pain or lymphadenopathy.
2. Rashes and blisters on the skin, genitalia or other parts of the body. These could be papules, vesicles, pustules or scabs.

People at risk also include those with one epidemiological link within 21 days, including:

1. Contact with monkeypox patients
2. Arrival from other countries, participating in any activity with monkeypox patients or in an occupation that involves close contact with foreign travellers
3. Contact with rodents or small mammals imported from outbreak continents such as Africa.

Confirmed patients

At least two labs will test samples taken from patients. The result will be confirmed as positive if the monkeypox virus (MPXV) is found via real-time PCR or DNA sequencing.

Cases will be investigated further to see if the patients contracted the virus inside the country or from outside.

Treatment

Patients will be given conventional treatment because there are no anti-viral drugs to tackle the virus at the moment, while tecovirimat will be given to severe patients.

High-risk groups

These are:

Published : August 04, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40018457

People should avoid sexual contact with foreigners in order to contain the spread of monkeypox, the Medical Council of Thailand advised on Tuesday.

Amorn Leelarasamee, a member of the Medical Council of Thailand, said he was uncertain whether monkeypox would become endemic in Thailand as the disease can be transmitted from person to person and from animal to person.

He pointed out that monkeypox would be unable to control if the disease spreads among rodents such as monkeys, rabbits and rats.

“If monkeypox patients have any underlying disease such as cancer or immune deficiency, the virus could cause death,” he warned.

Amorn asked people who develop fever, a red rash and blisters to immediately take a monkeypox test and isolate themselves for 21 days.

He also advised Thais to avoid sexual contact with foreigners as most monkeypox cases worldwide have been found in gay men.

Up to 20,000 Europeans are infected with monkeypox daily, Amorn noted.

“Monkeypox can’t be transmitted via sexual contact, but people can be infected with the virus from blister secretions,” he warned.

He said hotel operators should clean rooms in line with international standards in order to contain the spread of the disease.

More than 22,100 people in 70 countries have been infected so far with monkeypox, with 5,189 cases found in the US alone, Amorn said.

“Monkeypox patients have been found in most US states, except Vermont, Montana and Wyoming,” he added.

Published : August 03, 2022

By : THE NATION