Rabat – Monkeypox is likely a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), according to scientists.
A large body of research currently points out that the viral outbreak known as Monkeypox is an STD that is more likely to infect homosexual men.
In the past month, three new studies concluded that monkeypox primarily spreads through sexual intercourse between men, as opposed to prior data suggesting that it is due to skin contact occurring during sex.
Published in the prestigious British medical journal the Lancet, the newly emerging studies debunk a core belief about how Monkeypox spreads. Experts and health institutions had previously said that monkeypox spread mostly through skin-to-skin contact that could take place without sexual contact.
“A growing body of evidence supports that sexual transmission, particularly through seminal fluids, is occurring with the current monkeypox outbreak,” Aniruddha Hazra, Medical Director at the University of Chicago Sexual Wellness Clinic, told American media.
Another expert reportedly told the media that it is “very clear” that the disease is “an infection that is transmitting sexually the vast majority of the time.”
Another pair of scientists published a review of research on the issue, concluding that there is a converging body of evidence supporting the proposition that the virus is sexually transmitted.
Currently, three-quarters of monkeypox cases are men aged between 18 and 44, a range that correlates with the age distribution of sexually transmitted infections, according to scientists.
The new emerging evidence, however, does not mean that women or heterosexual individuals are immune to monkeypox. Instead, the research sheds light on why the majority of cases are occurring with men who have sex with other men.
The American national health agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that 94% occur in the case of homosexual men and 99% of cases are in men overall.
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