A woman, thirty years old… The profile of the first carrier of the “clade 1b” of the mpox virus is increasingly clear. On January 6, the Ministry of Health confirmed the observation on French soil of a first case of this strain of the disease that had worried the WHO.
• Suspicion since December 20
This is a patient – whose identity has been kept secret – who presented suggestive spots around December 19 or 20. He then consulted a GP who suspected mpox, the new name for “monkeypox”. During the meeting, the professional made the link with the trip of the patient’s boyfriend and her brother to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the disease circulates.
The private doctor then contacted the infectious diseases on-call service at the Rennes university hospital, which received the young woman for consultation. A sample was taken and it was positive.
As this is the first reported case of clade 1b on French soil, a second sample was taken to confirm the infection. For their part, the two men who went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared that they had not had any symptoms. Since the patient was feeling well, she was never hospitalized.
• “Relatively few” contact cases
Should we fear a chain of contamination? Epidemiological investigation, incubation, that is, the period between contamination and the appearance of symptoms, can last up to 3 weeks.
All people encountered by the patient in the previous three weeks were seen for consultation. Fortunately, she did not work during the period in which she was contagious; contact cases “were relatively few,” according to a caregiver.
As for the hospital staff who treated her, since the caregivers knew that it was a suspected case of mpox, precautions had been taken: gloves and a mask were already mandatory due to the flu epidemic in particular.
One or two people had to be vaccinated due to careless contact with the patient because transmission occurs mainly through contact with lesions.
• “Don’t worry” from the French authorities
Clade 1b was identified in the world for the first time at the end of 2023. According to Professor Pierre Tattevin, head of the department of infectious diseases and medical resuscitation at the University Hospital of Rennes, “it continues to circulate actively in the Congo, where mortality is estimated . around 4%. It seems more aggressive than clade 2,” he explains to BFMTV.
“Which does not mean at all that here we would have the same rate, taking into account the conditions of care,” continues the specialist.
Although the clade has been circulating for more than a year, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), fewer than ten cases have been imported: one in Sweden, five in Germany, one in Belgium and some cases in the United Kingdom. United Kingdom. Then, cases of secondary transmission were only recorded in Germany and the United Kingdom.
In France, health authorities recommend vaccination for people at high risk of exposure: men who have sex with men, those who report having multiple partners, sex workers and all people who live with these groups.
The Minister responsible for Health, Yannick Neuder, also assured that “there is no need to worry” about the presence of this virus in France, apart from a visit to the university hospital.
Source: BFM TV
