Neurological Effects of Monkeypox Largely Unknown, Review Finds

Much remains unknown about the long-term neurologic effects of monkeypox. In anarticle published today inJAMA Neurology, researchers from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and colleagues described how reports of complications from other orthopoxviruses, such as smallpox, may offer clues about the neurologic consequences of monkeypox.“Although the COVID-19 pandemic is the worst pandemic in a century, the recent past has seen several major pandemics, including Zika, Ebola, dengue, West Nile, and AIDS,” wrote B. Jeanne Billioux, M.D., of NINDS and colleagues. “A common thread to these pandemics is the long-term neurologic co mplications such as post–COVID-19 conditions, congenital Zika syndrome, post-Ebola syndrome, West Nile encephalitis, and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. … Yet often these manifestations go unrecognized, initially masked by the acute systemic involvement by the infection and later attrib uted to end-organ damage or to pandemic-related psychosocial stresses.”Billioux and colleagues provided an overview of orthopoxviruses known to infect humans before describing the clinical features of smallpox and monkeypox. They described reports of headaches, febrile seizures/encephalopathy, andtransverse myelitis among patients with smallpox as well as other symptoms. They noted that while “very few neurologic complications of monkeypox have been described,” existing reports highlight headache; neuropathic pain; an...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: febrile seizures/encephalopathy headache JAMA Neurology monkeypox neurological problems smallpox transverse myelitis Source Type: research