Study finds Previous smallpox Vax confers immunity against MPOX
Study finds Previous smallpox Vax confers immunity against MPOX
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According to a Swedish study, smallpox vaccinations given up until the middle of the 1970s provide ongoing immunity against monkeypox. 

The virus first expanded outside of Africa during the mpox (previously monkeypox) pandemic last year, which has resulted in almost 85,000 cases of the illness. The majority of infections are caused by guys who have sex with other men, with a clear bias towards the young, according to the study.

Similar to the virus that caused smallpox until the mid-1970s, when it was eventually eradicated, the virus that causes mpox is called as an orthopoxvirus. 

The researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden wondered if those who had received the old smallpox vaccine decades earlier would have some protection against the latter due to a lingering memory response since there was data suggesting that the vaccine could protect against mpox.

The  Reserach's co-author Marcus Buggert, a researcher at Karolinska Institutet  claims "Our study shows that this is the case, which implies that the memory cells are very long-lived and that they can recognise closely related viruses such as the mpox virus and provide overlapping, or cross-reactive immunity." The study, which was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, examined the T-cell immune response in 105 healthy blood donors and found that people born before 1976 had a considerably greater immune response to both virus types.

In addition, the researchers looked at 22 males who had recently contracted mpox and found that they also had a robust immune response to the virus, which may serve as future protection.

In contrast to Buggert, who cites a newly published British observational study looking at the impact of a smallpox vaccine administered to risk-group males in 2022, the current study was too small to assess the level of protection that past smallpox vaccination provided.

This study demonstrates that the smallpox vaccine can offer roughly 80% protection against mpox, the author added. A virus called mpox is primarily transmitted through close physical contact with an infected individual. The risk from sexual encounter is extremely significant.

Blistering, blisters and rashes, fever, and swollen glands are typical symptoms. It can sometimes be painful and uncomfortable, but after two to four weeks, it usually goes away by itself.

When smallpox was finally eradicated in Sweden in 1976, the vaccination plan that had been in place since the early 19th century was ended. Everyone in the population has to get the vaccination. Currently administered mpox vaccines are essentially smallpox vaccines.

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