Monkeypox may have broken out across the continent through sexual behaviour at two recent raves according to an expert. Dr David Heymann, who formerly headed the WHO's emergencies department, told the Associated Press the leading theory out of many put forward to explain the spread of the disease was sexual transmission at raves in Europe.
As reported by Birmingham Live, WHO has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in a dozen countries including Canada, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the US and Australia. "We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission," said Dr Heymann.
"By nature, sexual activity involves intimate contact, which one would expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, whatever a person's sexual orientation and irrespective of the mode of transmission," said Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London. Dr Heymann, who is also a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, added: "It's very possible there was somebody who got infected, developed lesions on the genitals, hands or somewhere else, and then spread it to others when there was sexual or close physical contact.
