Elderly Alaska man is first reported person to die of recently discovered Alaskapox virus
Elderly Alaska man is first reported person to die of recently discovered Alaskapox virus
Alaska state health officials say an elderly man has died from Alaskapox.
The man was undergoing cancer treatment and had a suppressed immune system because of the drugs, which may have contributed to the severity of his illness, the bulletin said. It described him as elderly but didn’t provide his age.
Alaskapox, also known as AKPV, is related to smallpox, cowpox and mpox, health officials said. Symptoms can include a rash, swollen lymph nodes and joint or muscle pain.
Only six other cases of the virus have been reported to Alaska health officials since the first one in 2015. All involved people were living in the Fairbanks area, more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) from the Kenai Peninsula, health officials said.
This has all the hallmarks of yet another panic-bait-article... One sentence in the whole article renders it completely and utterly irrelevant. About the other cases, the article itself says:
All had mild cases and recovered without being hospitalized.
So all that's in this "news report" is that there are diseases that affect animals but not humans which can on occasion jump to humans but usually are pretty harmless then because they are equipped to deal with a cat's immune system, but not with a human immune system. This becomes irrelevant once said human immune system isn't working right.
This is not "breaking news". There is a loooong and ever changing list of pathogens in exactly this situation and there always will be.
Anyone who's played Plague Inc knows you can't make your virus too deadly too quickly or it will burn itself out. Mild symptoms allows it to become a pandemic and then endemic.
There is a more complete article in one of the science subs. I'm sorry I can't find it right now, I believe it is in the last 24 hours or so.
Your second paragraph sums up what I remember from it though.
ETA: this post in c/publichealth https://lemmy.nz/post/6766151
Aren't we not supposed to name viruses after their place of origin?
Yeah...
Nothing could ever happen because of ice melting.
There is nothing at all suggesting that this virus is some frozen zombie virus the panic-mills at sciency bullshit outlets want you to fear. Nothing at all. Orthopox are one of many strands of viruses that sweep back and forth our globe with varying target species and varying severity. Just like influenza, corona, rhino, etc.
At least not this fiscal year...no worries
The man said he had cared for a stray cat at his home, the bulletin said.
The cat tested negative for the virus but it “regularly hunted small mammals and frequently scratched the patient,” the bulletin said.
If a cat was frequently scratching me, I might just leave it alone. Getting scratched by stray cats is a bad idea.
Is this one of those viruses that was supposed to be perminantly frozen in perma frost?
mpox? wtf is that?
Well that's terrifying
Someone with a compromised immune system dying of a disease that has mild symptoms in the five other people who have ever been diagnosed with the disease is the opposite of terrifying.