Mary Wilson
Well-known member
Wednesday, June 8th, 2022
Erica Carbajal
The CDC quietly removed a recommendation that people wear masks from its monkeypox travel alert June 6, The New York Timesreported June 7.
In travel guidance updated last week, the agency said, "Wearing a mask can help protect you from many diseases, including monkeypox."
The CDC in a June 7 statement to the Times said it "removed the mask recommendation from the monkeypox travel health notice because it caused confusion."
The alert says the "risk to the general public is low," and that travelers should avoid contact with sick people, avoid contact with contaminated materials used by sick people such as clothing, and avoid contact with dead or live wild animals.
While much of the public discourse surrounding monkeypox transmission so far has focused on skin and other close forms of contact, the CDC's guidance reversal underscores that the virus can be transmitted — at least to some extent — through aerosols.
Since the virus can only travel short distances, airborne transmission is thought to be a small factor in the overall spread, but there are no hard estimates on how much this mode of transmission contributes to spread, experts told the Times.
"This is not a virus that was transmitted over several meters," Andrea McCollum, PhD, the CDC's leading expert on monkeypox, told the Times. "That's why we have to be really careful how to frame this," emphasizing that contracting monkeypox requires "really close sustained contact."
On its infection control guidance page for monkeypox, the CDC advises infected patients, "especially those who have respiratory symptoms," to wear a surgical mask. "Other household members should consider wearing a surgical mask when in the presence of the person with monkeypox."
https://www.beckershospitalreview.c...on-from-monkeypox-travel-alert-4-updates.html
Erica Carbajal
The CDC quietly removed a recommendation that people wear masks from its monkeypox travel alert June 6, The New York Timesreported June 7.
In travel guidance updated last week, the agency said, "Wearing a mask can help protect you from many diseases, including monkeypox."
The CDC in a June 7 statement to the Times said it "removed the mask recommendation from the monkeypox travel health notice because it caused confusion."
The alert says the "risk to the general public is low," and that travelers should avoid contact with sick people, avoid contact with contaminated materials used by sick people such as clothing, and avoid contact with dead or live wild animals.
While much of the public discourse surrounding monkeypox transmission so far has focused on skin and other close forms of contact, the CDC's guidance reversal underscores that the virus can be transmitted — at least to some extent — through aerosols.
Since the virus can only travel short distances, airborne transmission is thought to be a small factor in the overall spread, but there are no hard estimates on how much this mode of transmission contributes to spread, experts told the Times.
"This is not a virus that was transmitted over several meters," Andrea McCollum, PhD, the CDC's leading expert on monkeypox, told the Times. "That's why we have to be really careful how to frame this," emphasizing that contracting monkeypox requires "really close sustained contact."
On its infection control guidance page for monkeypox, the CDC advises infected patients, "especially those who have respiratory symptoms," to wear a surgical mask. "Other household members should consider wearing a surgical mask when in the presence of the person with monkeypox."
https://www.beckershospitalreview.c...on-from-monkeypox-travel-alert-4-updates.html