Australia’s top doctor makes major Monkeypox announcement amid WHO’s stark sex warning

Australia’s top doctor has declared Monkeypox is now of “national significance”, as WHO calls for a total sex shutdown.

Australia’s top doctor has declared that Monkeypox is now a communicable disease incident of national significance.

Chief medical officer Paul Kelly made the major announcement on Thursday morning.

In Australia, there have been 44 cases – the majority of which have been within returned international travellers.

Professor Kelly’s announcement means the federal government can enact an emergency response to the outbreak.

Monkeypox is a viral infection that causes a rash and is spread by very close contact with someone with monkeypox.

Professor Kelly said the virus’ rash and flu-like symptoms are relatively mild, and in most cases, resolve themselves within two to four weeks without the need for specific treatments.

Meanwhile, the world’s top public health agency has made the stark recommendation to shut down sex as monkeypox cases surge globally.

The World Health Organisation, which declared monkeypox a global health emergency just days ago, has now called for abstinence as the top way to protect against infection and “reduce the risk of exposure”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference that “anyone exposed can get monkeypox,” but that the group most affected should stop or reduce the amount of sex they’re having.

“For men who have sex with men, this includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners, and exchanging contact details with any new partners to enable follow-up if needed,” he said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Picture: AFP

It is a stunning shift in messaging around the virus, with the WHO previously focusing on not stigmatising gay and bisexual men in the outbreak.

The turnaround to explicitly call for a sex shutdown comes after the WHO estimated as much as 98 per cent of cases came from men having sex with men.

The WHO has previously identified the initial outbreak of monkeypox to sex parties in Europe, with some of the earliest cases linked to a sex rave in Spain and a large-scale fetish festival in Belgium.

Since its discovery in Europe in early May, there have been more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox from 78 countries reported to WHO. Of those, 70 per cent of cases were reported in Europe and 25 per cent in the Americas.

Mr Ghebreyesus said about 10 per cent of those infected end up in hospital to manage pain, and a total of five deaths have been reported since the start of the outbreak.

Infectious disease researchers in Italy and Germany also identified at least eight infected patients who contain the genetic material of monkeypox in their semen.

Italy’s Spallanzani Institute have found at least one of his six patient samples had the capability of replicating and infecting another person.

People line up to receive monkeypox vaccinations at Guys Hospital in London, England. Picture: Getty Images

A man receives a dose of the Monkeypox vaccine at the Edison municipal vaccination centre in Paris. Picture: AFP

The data is being submitted for publication, but Francesco Vaia, the institute’s general director, said it was not conclusive proof the virus had mutated.

If confirmed, however, the findings would place monkeypox alongside HIV/AIDS, syphilis and chlamydia as a sexually transmitted disease spread through bodily fluids.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week found that 95 per cent of cases were transmitted through sexual activity, with symptoms including a blistering rash.

While Mr Ghebreyesus called for the gay sex slowdown, he stressed that “anyone exposed can get monkeypox” but that countries needed to take action to prevent its spread to vulnerable children, pregnant women and the immunosuppressed.

Andy Seale of WHO’s sexually transmitted infections program said the call for gay and bisexual men to reduce their number of sexual partners came after calls “from the communities themselves”.

He added it was “a short-term message as we hope that the outbreak of course will be short-lived”.