Doctors say there is a high risk of blindness after monkeypox

One in ten monkeypox sufferers lose their sight due to complications. About it reported in Izvestia with reference to the statistics of Egyptian scientists and the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor.

According to Natalya Pshenichnaya, director of clinical and analytical work at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, eye infection can lead to corneal inflammation.

This, according to her, “will lead to its clouding, ulceration and subsequent scarring, and as a result – irreversible loss of vision.”

In Egypt, where there was a prior outbreak of monkeypox, blindness in patients may be due to inflammation of the cornea, a consequence of zoonotic virus infection.

Experts from the Egyptian University of Tanta found that every tenth patient has a loss of vision. One in five patients experience photophobia, and one in three suffers from conjunctivitis.

Also, according to the newspaper, 17 percent of monkeys with smallpox have focal lesions of the conjunctiva, 7.5 percent have keratitis, and 4 percent have corneal ulcers.

On July 23, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, declared the monkeypox outbreak a global public health emergency.

Note that monkeypox is a rare viral disease that is mainly transmitted to humans from wild animals. The disease is not new, but for many years it has not spread beyond Central Africa. As a rule, its carriers are primates, but it can also be spread among humans by airborne droplets.