As with Covid, it is possible to get tested to find out whether or not you are infected with monkeypox.
Cases of monkey pox are increasing in France. Consequence: the World Health Organization triggered its highest level of alert this Saturday, July 23. It is therefore now possible to be tested to detect the virus, here is in which cases and how to proceed.
Getting tested, yes, but how?
In a press release published on Monday, the High Authority for Health requests reimbursement for tests to detect infection with the Monkeypox virus. She recalls an important thing, unlike Covid-19, “the diagnosis of infection by the Monkeypox virus is based in first intention on the clinical examination and the questioning of the patient”.
As the HAS explains, it is only after this clinical examination carried out by a doctor, who comes if necessary to confirm or not a “suspicious case”, that the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) intervenes.
It “only makes sense in a context of confirmation and is not not useful in the absence of symptoms“, specifies the HAS in its opinion. Being carried out in the laboratory, the NAAT consists of mucosal samples, skin samples, and samples from the oropharyngeal sphere, including a PCR test.
These are powerful molecular tests for detecting microorganisms and diagnosing the infections they cause.
HAS emphasizes the need to report the results of these tests as quickly as possible, since they impact in particular the maintenance or lifting of isolation. Monkeypox is a notifiable disease. As soon as a case is identified, doctors must notify the health authorities. Positive people should self-isolate for at least 3 weeks.
Opening of a vaccinodrome in Paris
The Minister of Health, François Braun, announced on Monday July 25 the opening of a large vaccination center in Paris. “Tomorrow, in Paris, opens a center which will be able to very significantly increase the volume of vaccinations. To date, more than a hundred vaccination centers are in place” throughout the territory, he specified. on BFM TV.
“We have the doses, we now need the arms to vaccinate”, also insisted François Braun, who announced that medical students could soon participate in the vaccination campaign against monkeypox, thanks to a decree published this Tuesday, July 25.
What are the symptoms of monkey pox?
What are the symptoms of Monkeypox infection?
It is advisable to call the Samu center 15 and to isolate yourself without delay if you have the following symptoms, recalls the Health Insurance:
- fever and fatigue;
- headache ;
- sore throat and pain when swallowing;
- muscle aches ;
- swollen and painful glands, under the jaw, at the level of the neck or in the fold of the groin;
- pimples on the face, sex, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, at the level of the anus, on the body or the limbs: initially similar to raised red spots, they quickly take on the appearance of vesicles filled with clear fluid, then firm, sharp pustules filled with pus, becoming hollow and ulcerated.