Epidemiology, clinic and prevention of monkeypox. Bibliographic review

Abstract

Introduction: Monkeypox, or monkeypox, is a zoonosis endemic in the rural jungle areas of central and western Africa, in humans the first occurrence was in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is caused by a virus belonging to the genus Orthopoxvirus of the Poxviridae family. Objective: to determine the causes and predisposing factors to the outbreak of monkeypox, transmission routes, clinical manifestations, evolution, complications, diagnosis, therapeutic management, prevention and control of infection. Material and methods: a systematic review was carried out in the Medscape, Pubmed, Science Direct and Scielo databases. Thirty-one papers were used. Results: Monkeypox was discovered in 1958 in the city of Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, in monkeys used for research. In 1970, the first case of monkeypox in humans was reported in a child in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Once the diagnostic suspicion is determined, sampling is indicated to confirm infection by nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) or real-time PCR. PCR is the definitive diagnostic test, can be alone or followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis or sequencing, has high sensitivity and specificity; and a rapid turnaround time of about one day or less. Monkeypox is usually mild and most people recover without treatment. Conclusions: so far in Ecuador 421 cases of monkeypox have been reported, so it is important that public health officials and health care personnel receive training on the risk of the disease, recognition, treatment and isolation of cases. It is important that the country has sufficient PCR tests in public facilities for the confirmation of cases and as a method of prevention, citizens should maintain the biosecurity measures announced by the MSP.