According to media reports, officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the monkeypox virus may be airborne for “short distances” and have advised people and healthcare workers in close contact to wear masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised travellers last week to protect themselves against monkeypox by wearing masks.
“Wear a mask. Wearing a mask can help protect you from many diseases, including monkeypox,” read the recommendation that was later deleted, the New York Times reported.
According to the agency, it “removed the mask recommendation from the monkeypox travel health notice because it caused confusion.”
It did, however, state that “household contacts and health care workers” in countries where monkeypox is spreading should consider wearing masks.
“Other people who may be in close contact with a person who has been confirmed with monkeypox,” it added.
On its website, the CDC also advises monkeypox patients to”especially those who have respiratory symptoms”, to put on a surgical mask It also advises other members of the household to “consider wearing a surgical mask” when in the presence of the person with monkeypox.
Until now, health officials have not explicitly addressed the possibility of airborne transmission or the need for masks, but they have emphasised the role of large respiratory droplets expelled by infected patients and drifting onto objects or people, according to the report.
Andrea McCollum, the CDC’s leading expert on the virus, was quoted as saying that monkeypox infection requires “really close sustained contact.”
“This is not a virus that was transmitted over several metres,” she said. “That’s why we have to be really careful how to frame this.”
McCollum responded when asked if health officials should make the possibility of airborne transmission more widely known: “It’s a fair point to make, and it’s something we certainly should consider moving forward.”
According to experts, there are no firm estimates of how much of the recent outbreak has spread via air, according to reports.
“It’s very ambiguous what the true or dominant route of transmission is, and some of that can be addressed in animal models,” Nancy Sullivan, a researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated at the World Health Organization’s recent scientific conference (WHO).
“Probably that needs to take a front seat for some of the laboratory research,” she was quoted as saying.
The virus is not a sexually transmitted infection, which is typically transmitted through sperm and vaginal fluids. However, the most recent outbreak – with over 780 cases in 27 countries recorded by the WHO as of June 2 – appears to have been spread among men who have sex with other men, despite the fact that the UN health body emphasises that anyone can contract monkeypox.
