After monkeypox (or Monkeypox), it is the turn of a new virus with a strange name to hold the top spot in the “Health” section of the American media. Alaskapox – also known as AKPV or “Alaskan smallpox” – caused its first death across the Atlantic at the end of January.
According to a press release from the health authorities of the American state broadcast on February 9, the deceased is an elderly man (his exact age has not been specified) who was immunocompromised and treated for cancer. “This is the first case of serious Alaskapox infection resulting in hospitalization and death”specifies the bulletin.
Hospitalized on November 17
According to Alaska health authorities, the deceased patient first observed strange symptoms in September 2023. “By mid-September 2023”the man from the Kenai peninsula particularly noticed “a red and painful papule under his right armpit”. He then visited his doctor and local emergency services without any signs of bacterial infection ever being detected.
“Despite treatment with antibiotics, the patient felt more and more fatigue, an increasing hardness [de sa papule] and more pain in his right shoulder”, we read in the bulletin of February 9. On November 17, he was finally hospitalized “due to the significant progression of infectious cellulitis which affected the range of movement of his right arm”.
After a comprehensive battery of tests, the man finally tested positive for AKPV. “Despite numerous treatments”the elderly patient suffered from “malnutrition, acute renal failure and respiratory failure”. He finally died at the end of January 2024.
Seven cases in nine years
This is the first official death caused by Alaskapox. Discovered for the first time in 2015 in a woman residing in Fairbanks, Alaska, this virus is part – like Monkeypox – of the orthopoxvirus family. In nine years, the country’s authorities have reported only seven cases (none were in Europe).
The main symptoms caused by this virus include one or more skin rashes – always in the form of bumps or pustules – swollen lymph nodes and joint or muscle pain. “ Many patients with Alaskapox initially thought they had a spider or insect bite. Almost all patients had mild illness that resolved on its own within a few weeks.”Alaska health authorities also noted in their press release.
The death of the elderly patient is therefore a first which raises questions even if, the authorities concede, “the patient’s immunosuppression likely contributed to the severity of the disease”.
A zoonotic disease?
For the moment, the mode of transmission of this disease is still uncertain. “Researchers say it could be zoonotic, meaning an infectious disease transmitted to humans by animals or insects”note The Parisian .
The clues to understanding the death of the elderly patient in January also point to a stray cat that the man would have taken in. “The man said he had recently taken care of a stray cat at his home”, specifies the daily. But the feline tested negative for the virus. On the other hand, he “regularly hunted small mammals and frequently scratched the patient”suggesting that the cat had the virus on its claws when it scratched the man.
Thanks to two series of tests carried out in 2020 and 2021, the presence of the Alaskapox virus was confirmed in two species: red-backed voles and shrews. In total, four species would be affected.
No cases of transmission of the virus by humans have also been documented. “There is no reason to panic, especially since we are in a category of viruses that we know”concludes, in the columns of 20 Mminutes Benjamin Davido, infectious disease doctor at the Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Garches.