Can Monkeypox Affect Your Sexual Health ?

Overview

Monkeypox may spread through intimate contact between people during sex and through activities such as hugging, kissing, or touching parts of the body with monkeypox wounds. It may affect your sexual health. So we will describe more about this topic in this blog. It can also affect you if you are in contact with that kind of infected animal or a person currently suffering from a monkeypox infection. It’s a contagious virus, so that it may spread quickly. If you want to know more about the symptoms and precautions of Monkeypox, continue reading this article until the end. Monkeypox Affect.

What is Monkeypox?

Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus of the poxvirus family. Monkeypox is a self-limited illness that usually lasts for 2-4 weeks. Severe cases may occur. Currently, the case fatality rate is about 3-6%. Monkeypox is a rare infectious disease or infection caused by a virus that spreads to some animals in the woodlands of Central and West Africa. Nevertheless, recent cases have been reported in humans in some countries.

How Does It Spread?

The monkeypox virus is nearly associated with the smallpox virus, which was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Monkeypox can spread through close contact with animals and humans infected with the monkeypox virus. Person-to-person transmission is often accompanied by skin-to-skin contact with a person who has a monkeypox rash, scabs, or sores.

Monkeypox can also spread via respiratory droplets or oral fluid during intimate sexual contact (kiss, anal, oral, or vaginal sex). Contact with clothes, surfaces, and objects contaminated with the virus (including clothing, towels, or bedding) may also spread monkeypox infection.

Symptoms and signs of Monkeypox: A few common symptoms include headache, fever, swollen lymph nodes (armpits, neck, or groin), back and muscle pain, and malaise, although not all infected persons with monkeypox sense or experience these flu-like symptoms in their body.

The rash usually develops within 1 to 3 days of fever, first appearing on the face and then spreading to other body parts such as the mouth, anus, and vagina. The rash begins as flat red-colored spots, which become hard, fluid-filled, raised ridges or bumps and then turn into scabs that take several weeks or months to heal.

How Do You Catch Monkeypox?

Monkeypox may spread when someone is in close contact with an infected person. The monkeypox virus may enter the body through broken skin, respiratory tract, nose, mouth, and eyes. It is not previously described as a sexually transmitted infection but can be spread or passed on by close contact with an infected person. The new guidance advises people infected with the virus to refrain from having sex while they are symptomatic.

Currently, there is no available proof that the monkeypox virus can be spread in sexual fluids; individuals confirmed to be infected with the virus is mainly advised to use condoms for eight weeks after infection as protection or precaution. It may also spread through contact with infected animals like rats, squirrels, and monkeys or by virus-contaminated items, such as clothing and bedding.

Can Monkeypox Affect Your Sexual Health?

Monkeypox is a new topic for all of us; therefore, there is no evidence or research about Monkeypox’s effects on sexual health. If I talk about it, my answer would be yes. It can affect your sexual health because when somebody gets infected with the monkeypox virus, they get several side effects, such as fever, headache, muscle pains, chills, and fatigue. These all symptoms are contagious, which means that an infected person would be unable to make any physical relationships due to those symptoms and tiredness. So yes! It can definitely impact their sexual health and sexual life.

Treatment Of Monkeypox

Currently, no specific treatments exist for monkeypox infection, but outbreaks may be controlled. Smallpox injection, VIG (vaccinia immune globulin), and cidofovir, ST-246 can be used to manage the attack of Monkeypox.

CDC guidelines were developed using the best available details about the risks and advantages of the smallpox vaccine and medicine used to manage and prevent Monkeypox and other orthopoxvirus infections and disease.

Smallpox And Monkeypox Vaccine

JYNNEOS (known as Imvanes or Imvamune too) has been licensed in the USA to prevent smallpox and Monkeypox because monkeypox and smallpox virus both are closely related to the same virus. Therefore, the smallpox vaccine may also prevent people from getting the monkeypox virus. Previous African data suggest that smallpox vaccination is at least 85% impactful in preventing monkeypox infection.

ACAM2000, which contains the live vaccinia virus, is approved for immunization of individuals over the age of 18 who are at high risk of smallpox. It may be used in individuals exposed to the monkeypox virus if used under an expanded access investigational new medicine protocol. A separate smallpox vaccine is not available to the general public yet. But it can be cured through previously mentioned vaccines as well.

Monkeypox Precautions

As we know, Monkeypox is a contagious virus, so it’s better to avoid coming into touch or contact with infected people. You should wear a mask or cover your face if you are in close contact with someone with Monkeypox symptoms. Use condoms while having a sexual relationship with your infected partner. If your animal is infected with the monkeypox virus, avoid coming into touch with animals that can make you infected as well.

It includes dead or sick animals, especially those with a bad history of infection like prairie dogs, monkeys, rodents, and any stray animals. You should always wash your hands and practice good hand and body hygiene, especially after coming into close contact with an infected person-or, suspected infected person or animal. You may wash your hand with good handwashing, soap, and clean water. If you are nonvegetarian, you should consume meat that has been cooked well.

It can also be spread through materials and surfaces, so it’s better to avoid touching items that have been in touch or contact with sick animals or human beings. Always wash clothes and bedsheets at high temperatures if your close ones or known are suffering from a Monkeypox infection. It would be beneficial for all.

What To Do If You Get Infected or Catch Monkeypox?

If you suspect that you have a monkeypox infection, protect and isolate yourself from physical contact with other people and seek medical attention immediately. Primary symptoms of Monkeypox such as headaches, muscle pain, fever, back pain, and swelling. Lesions and rashes then typically emerge on the hands, feet, eyes, face, mouth, or genitals in 1-5 days.

Those rashes turn into raised bumps and then blisters that can fill with white-colored fluid before breaking and scabbing. However, medical confirmation is essential. Many viral symptoms can easily be confused with other illnesses such as chickenpox, syphilis, and herpes. If you are diagnosed with Monkeypox, you should quarantine yourself until the virus is cleared. The disease is usually mild, and most people recover within 2-4 weeks.

Conclusion

Monkeypox may spread with intimate contact with an infected person so it can affect sexual health. It’s a contagious virus, and if you are suffering from the symptoms mentioned in the above lines, you should contact a pharmacist or doctor. If you see the effects of Monkeypox in a person or animals, you should tell them about the treatment and isolation. It may spread like the coronavirus if they come close to anyone.