Jonathan Schapiro
MD
National Hemophilia Center, Sheba Medical Center, Israel
Monkeypox Clinical Forum 2022
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About this Program
Several countries in West and Central Africa have been reporting human monkeypox infection since the 1970s but despite this, it has remained a neglected tropical infection that has been underfunded and under-researched. Sporadic exported cases outside of Africa have occurred several times over the years with very short chains of (mainly household or HCW) transmission beyond the index case. This situation changed in early May 2022 when the first cases of this global outbreak were reported to the WHO.
Since then, there have been near-simultaneous outbreaks in multiple countries which now affect at least all 6 WHO regions and at least 79 countries. The WHO declared the situation a PHIEC in late July. The outbreaks are occurring almost exclusively in sexually active gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (GBMSM). Infections in previously affected African countries are now accounting for 2% of the globally reported cases.
There is an urgent need for education for clinicians in most countries who may never have seen or treated anyone with human monkeypox infection. There are many unanswered questions about transmission, asymptomatic disease, treatment, and vaccine efficacy for pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis, not to mention the evolution of a new phylogenetic classification nomenclature.
This program will aim to provide rapid education for those caring for people with human monkeypox infection from the perspective of clinicians previously and newly experienced with the disease.