Alaskapox: how is the new virus transmitted and how dangerous it is
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At the end of January 2024, the first person died in Alaska from a rare disease – alascapox. What is known about the virus is in the Kommersant information sheet.
What kind of virus is alascapox?
Alaskapox is a subspecies of orthopoxviruses. Another name for the disease is Alaskan smallpox. It was first discovered in 2015, and a complete analysis of the virus genome was published in 2019. After which the disease got its name – alascapox.
Symptoms of the virus
The main symptom of the virus is a small lesion on the skin that heals after a few weeks. Other signs of the disease include:
– pain in joints or muscles;
– enlarged lymph nodes.
How did alascapox spread?
The first case of infection was identified in Fairbanks (Alaska) in 2015. A second case was discovered in the same city in 2020. The following year, two more cases of Alaskapox infection were discovered in Fairbanks. By February 2024, only seven cases of the virus had been reported: six in Fairbanks and one on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. In Fairbanks, all patients experienced mild illness. A Kenai Peninsula man has died from the virus.
How is alascapox transmitted?
Scientists have detected the presence of the virus in small mammals living in areas where there were infections. Experts believe that animals are involved in transmitting the disease, but do not yet know exactly how. There have been no recorded cases of human-to-human transmission of the virus to date.
Representatives of Rospotrebnadzor said that the penetration of the virus into Russia is excluded. The department added that the Perimeter automated information system is in place to control the situation at the border. It allows you to identify people with infectious diseases.
Fatal case
Only one person died from the virus, the remaining six suffered a mild form of the disease and did not require hospitalization. The seventh patient was an elderly man from the Kenai Peninsula. Doctors believe that he died because his immune system was weakened after treatment for cancer.
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