Study Reveals that Monkeypox can Also be Asymptomatic

• Monkeypox is transmitted by close contact with people who have symptomatic infection, and all those infected are assumed to show symptoms.
• A recent study has found that people can be infected with monkeypox without showing any typical or atypical symptoms.

Symptoms assumed

• Person infected with monkeypox is expected to develop symptoms.
• Virus spread through close contact with people who show symptoms.
• But asymptomatic transmission can change and challenge efforts to contain monkeypox outbreaks.
• According to WHO, extent to which asymptomatic infection may occur is unknown.

Similar viral loads

• Researchers note that cycle threshold (Ct) values in anorectal samples taken from asymptomatic men were similar to or lower than those in samples taken from typical monkeypox skin lesions.
• This suggests similar viral loads immaterial of whether they showed symptoms or not.
• Asymptomatic carriership, with high viral loads in anal mucosa, could be significant driver of transmission.

Unnoticed skin lesions

• Transmission of virus in absence of noticeable symptoms might explain why self-isolation has been insufficient to halt the epidemic thus far.
• More studies are needed to confirm or refute the findings of these researchers.
• Meanwhile, more efforts should be directed at identifying asymptomatic cases through increased contact tracing and screening high-risk populations.