PALERMO – The latest case of ‘monkeypox’ was diagnosed in the last few hours to a young man from Palermo returning from holidays in London. It is the seventh in the city since the beginning of the summer. “Nothing serious, let’s avoid alarmism but don’t underestimate the story either. Responsibility is needed ”, explains Professor Antonio Cascio, director of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit of the Policlinico di Palermo.
When he utters these words Cascio refers to the sexual habits of the patients. “The cases concern all men between the ages of 20 and 35, with the exception of a fifty-year-old – he adds-. They had homosexual intercourse, unprotected, with subjects without symptoms ”.
Fever, pains and skin lesions also in the genital organs. These are the signs that should not be underestimated. “Our patients were all in home isolation and had no serious consequences.”
Monkeypox is a human-to-human infectious disease. Its name derives from the fact that the causative agent was first isolated in a laboratory monkey in 1958.
No stigma: those who have casual intercourse, regardless of sexuality, are also at risk. At the moment, in fact, it is not cataloged as a sexually transmitted disease.
It is transmitted through close contacts, sexual ones are by definition, even by air, after a cough or a sneeze. Or the contagion occurs through body fluids and secretions.
“The last infected person had unprotected sex with two people within a few days – explains Cascio-. Upon returning home, he had to deal with very painful injuries. He turned to us for this, otherwise he would have returned to life as usual. This says a lot about how important responsibility is in sexual habits ”.