Study investigates transmission of smallpox from monkeys through contaminated surfaces

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An article to be published in December warns of the potential for monkeypox infection from contact with contaminated surfaces. The discovery came after studying the case of two nurses who may have contracted the virus.

The international research, entitled “Potential occupational infection of health care workers with monkeypox virus, Brazil”, was co-authored nationwide by Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) Pernambuco and the State Health Surveillance Center of Rio Grande do Sul (Cevs/SES-RS) .

The study shows that gloves, an essential material to protect professionals, were only used at the time of collection, after health professionals had sanitized their hands. Symptoms began to appear five days after treatment.

“The care provided in this service is described in detail, indicating that they used all protective equipment – except for gloves – while in the initial interview period, in the patient’s room,” Vucruz explained in a note.

Control measures

The researchers suggest that contamination may have occurred through contact with surfaces in the patient’s home at the height of transmission of the virus or through handling – without protecting or infecting gloves – with the sample box. Therefore, they believe that some action should be taken.

Consideration should be given to blocking the transmission path, which can be achieved with special assembly training. Implementation of control measures, frequent hand hygiene, use of gloves during the period of full patient visits and correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE) should also be approved by health professionals as best practices.

In addition, it is recommended that doctors, nurses and sufferers take care to clean surfaces with a disinfectant that is effective against other pathogens.

The article was co-authored by international entities and, on the national stage, Viecruz Pernambuco and the Rio Grande do Sul State Health Surveillance Center (Cevs/SES-RS). Besides them, three other universities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine – the National Reference Center for Tropical Infectious Diseases in Hamburg (Germany) collaborated in this work.

The research is published in the December issue of the scientific journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, edited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The disease has advanced in Brazil, which has already become the country with the highest number of monkeypox deaths outside of Africa, the continent where the disease has emerged.