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Jon's avatar

Did I miss it, or did the author discuss whether the virus passes through blood contact, making recipients of blood transfusions and IV drug users at risk? That's when AIDs jumped out of the gay population.

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DonnaAnn's avatar

In the early 80's my husband's best friend died of HIV-AIDS. He was a hemophiliac and was given tainted factor IX. He was 34 years old.

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Clarisse's avatar

I am sorry for your loss. Indeed it was a scary time and it was not known in the beginning that HIV was a bloodborne pathogen. Remember HIV was a totally novel virus and Monkeypox is not. This article provides some great information on Monkeypox transmission: https://www.cureus.com/articles/100707-monkeypox-a-comprehensive-review-of-transmission-pathogenesis-and-manifestation

Of course, our understanding of things changes all the time - horribly evident during the past few years.

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DonnaAnn's avatar

Thank you for the article. Back in the 70's and early 80's I worked in a hospital blood bank. It still amazes me how cavalier we all were handling blood and blood products back then. It was only when the hospital had patients with HIV that was the game changer. We treated every blood sample as if it were infected.

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Clarisse's avatar

You're welcome! My mother-in-law worked in a blood bank too. I started working in a lab in 1997 and she made sure to tell me not to mouth-pipette (luckily that's not a thing anymore). Ah yes, universal precautions - we still have those annual bloodborne pathogen training.

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Clarisse's avatar

He did not address that. But mentioned that other monkeypox variants are more easily spread in respiratory droplets - this variant not so much. Monkeypox is not a bloodborne pathogen (HIV, HPV-B & HPV-C). It appears to be mostly spread by contact with pustules or items that touched the pustules (bedding, towels).

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