Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
In August, the World Health Organization declared an empoc's global Health emergency as one strain. The virus has now killed over five hundred and seventy five people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and infected thirty times. More. New cases have recently appeared now in Europe and Asia. We're joined now by Carrie Debink, Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health. And a quick disclaimer. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. So, Carrie, what do Americans need to know about the threat of MPOs So?
I think the first thing that's really important for the general public to understand is that right now our risk is very low. We have not seen any cases of the specific type of empocs that the public health emergency
has been activated for. However, you know that health emergency went out to make sure that the governments and public health agencies are gearing up and getting ready in case we do see something, and also helping countries where there are cases combat it there so that it doesn't spread further. So for the general public right now, the risk is very low, but we also are prepared.
How are we prepared?
Yeah, that's a great question. So I think first I want to just give a background on empocs as far as how it's defined. So there's actually two different big groups of empocs. There's Claye one and Clayed two. And in twenty twenty two, there was a global outbreak of Clade two, including cases here in the United States, and there are still cases of the clade too empocs here
in the US. However, this specific public health emergency is actually geared towards one of the Clade one virus, and the reason for that being it's spreading to places that hasn't spread, it's spreading in ways it hasn't spread, and historically this has been a type of EMPOCS that causes
more severe disease and higher death rates. And so that's why people are concerned now because in twenty twenty two we had that outbreak of the Clade two virus, our public health agencies and health infrastructure really stepped up to make sure that we're able to do really good surveillance for EMPOCS. So we do wastewater testing and people are
doing clinical sample testing. We're also able to detect it in clinical cases, so there's a test that can tell whether or not somebody has EMPOCS versus another type of virus. And we also have vaccines available for people in high risk groups. So our health infrastructure really in the United States is set up well in case we do end up seeing clayed when virus is here.
What are the symptoms of EMPOCS and then what are the treatments then if someone does contract it.
So the symptoms of EMPOCS, they start out like typical flu symptoms, so fever, swollen lymph nodes, headache, those are some of the general symptoms that people can have. But the characteristic symptom of EMPOCS it's a pox virus, so it causes blisters, and so you end up with a rash that starts off as a flat rash, it that erupts into blisters that are fluid filled. Those burst and
scab over and and it heals. So that's the characteristic when people think of empocs, they're thinking usually of that rash and those blisters, So those are the main symptoms. Usually people recover. In severe cases, you know, people might have severe respiratory illness or neurological symptoms, and in rare cases people die from empocs, but the majority of people do recover. As far as treatments go, there are no
licensed specific anti virals or specifically for empacts. However, there have been cases where people are using antivirals that have been approved for other viral infections to try to treat it.
Usually this is in severe cases. For most people that don't end up with a really severe case, it's mostly treating the symptoms, you know, making sure that their pain is managed, that they're not getting secondary infections, like from a bacteria that invades, like the wounds, from the from the blisters, things like that.
Carrie, who who's most at risk for for mpaks and should these people be getting vaccinated?
Right? So, traditionally for Claye one viruses that were you know, they're they're traditionally found in Central Africa. It's usually children there that are that are the ones that are getting it the most, followed by also followed by people with immune deficiencies, so those are like the two highest risk group, children and people with immune deficiencies. Pregnant women are also at a greater risk of to themselves and to the
developing fetus of the baby. Here in the United States, in the two thousand and two outbreak, it was mostly seen in populations of men having sex with men, you know, So it really just depends on the particular location and the main transmission route in a certain area who might be the most at risk of getting it. But as far as severe infections and death, it's definitely children and people who are already compromised.
So are most children getting a vaccine that would protect against this.
No, in the United States, children are not being vaccinated right now in the United States. You know. Again, we haven't seen any Played one viruses at this point, So the vaccinations that have been given to this point have been for the two thousand and two outbreakak of that clade two virus, and the CDC has very specific recommendations for who gets that vaccine. It's really only recommended for specific groups that are high risk of development of being exposed.
In terms of like a worry list. Right now, where should we be? Where should this be on our list of things to worry about? I have a list, Yeah, have a list.
Okay, we'll put on put this one low.
Come.
And there's a couple there's a couple of reasons for that. So I know that it sounds really scary when people here like public health Emergency of International Concern, right, But you know that's you know, that's the who's designation. But that's really not meant to be for the average person in the public. That's really meant to be for governments and public health agencies to step up to prepare their infrastructure and to allow them to provide additional aid to
where it needs to go. So it's really that's really telling everybody to get ready for it, not that the average person needs to be worried about contracting it.
Carrie, thank you so much, the super super helpful Kerrie Debank, Associate Professor in the Department of molecum and Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins A. Bloomberg School of Public Health, supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder A Bloomberg LP and A Bloomberg philanthropy,