The World Health Organization suggested in July that men who have sex with men should “for now” reduce partners and reconsider sleeping with new people as a way to slow the spread of monkeypox.
Sometimes rubbing against an infected person (outside of sex) isn’t enough to make you sick, according to Dr. Berry Pierrean internal medicine doctor who fights monkeypox misinformation on ICT Tac.
“Unless you have cuts in your skin, [the virus] being on your skin isn’t going to seal the deal,” Pierre told BuzzFeed News. “You must always introduce it inside your body” by touching your face, mouth, nose or genitals.
Still, it won’t hurt to wash your hands often, especially before and after eating. After all, we are still in the midst of a deadly pandemic. (More than 300 people are still die every day from COVID in the USA.)
Other activities that involve prolonged close, skin-to-skin contact, like raves and circuit parties, for example, pose some risk, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid these events if that’s what you enjoy. TO DO.
“You can still enjoy yourself and have a good time, but maybe keep your shirt on or try to stick with friends or people you know throughout your time at a party or rave etc.”, Hazra said. “That doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of these experiences, but you can continue to do so, but perhaps in a safer way.”
Touching contaminated surfaces, objects or tissues
There is not enough data to know for sure the likelihood of contracting monkeypox from touching contaminated surfaces or materials, but a new German study, published in June in the journal Eurosurveillance, shows that the virus does indeed survive. on different surfaces – but whether these virus particles can infect anyone remains unknown.
Researchers swabbed the hospital rooms of two monkeypox patients (both male in their thirties) on the fourth day of their hospital stay and found monkeypox virus DNA on all surfaces and materials that patients touched, with the highest loads in their bathrooms and toilet seats, and on cabinet door handles “presumably” touched by medical staff.
Samples taken from the researchers’ gloves, a soap dispenser and a towel on one of the patients’ beds may have infected cells in a lab dish, but the team could not confirm whether an actual infection is possible through contact with these surfaces, in part because we don’t know how many viruses are needed to achieve this.
A separate 2020 study found that a nurse in the UK contracted monkeypox in 2018 after touching a patient’s contaminated beddingdespite wearing an apron and disposable gloves.
It’s not known how long monkeypox survives on different surfaces, but the CDC says orthopoxviruses as a whole can survive in a home setting for weeks or months, and that porous materials like bedding and clothing can harbor germs for longer periods of time than non-porous materials like plastic, metal, and glass. A study found that live monkeypox virus survived inside the home of an infected person for 15 days after leaving. In general, the virus lives longer in dark, cool and low humidity environments.
Still, experts aren’t convinced that touching contaminated surfaces is an effective means of transmission. If so, the data would have shown that now, particularly in Europe and Canada where monkeypox has been spreading since early May, Hazra said. It is, however, possible to get sick this way if you live with an infected person, sharing the same surfaces and materials for hours or days at a time.