Trending Hospitality Topics: Monkeypox

Monkeypox has been a trending topic across the globe. In the latest Assurance in Action podcast, Jason Burnett, Technical Director at Intertek Cristal, talks about monkeypox, what it is, and how it affects global travel and tourism.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello, and welcome to assurance and action intertext podcast that discusses key assurance topics and trends. Today. We welcome Jason Burnett technical director at Intertech crystal. He's here to talk about monkeypox what it is and how it affects global travel and tourism. Um, do you wanna introduce yourself a little bit, Jason?

Speaker 2: 0:30

Yeah. Thank you, Jessica. Um, yeah, I'm uh, yes. As you said, I'm Jason, I'm the technical director from Intertech crystal. I've worked with crystal for, uh, probably 20 years, um, doing a variety of things, ranging from sort of food hygiene all the way through to security. Um, and during that period, um, you know, I've been involved in many, many instances of outbreaks of infectious diseases. We've had, we've had neurovirus outbreaks, we've had, um, swine flu, um, most notably we've had COVID 19. Um, so I, you know, a lot of experience in dealing with that and obviously monkeypox has, has come up onto the radar now and, and people are asking quite a few questions about it. So I thought it'd be good to, to talk a bit more about monkeypox

Speaker 1: 1:11

Great. Um, so I guess my first question would be what is monkeypox and why should we be concerned about this now?

Speaker 2: 1:18

Okay, fantastic. Um, well monkeypox is, um, it's called monkey box. Um, the history of the actual, uh, infection at the virus itself is that it is a it's in the same family, a smallpox, which I think people understand smallpox is, is not, not good. And obviously a vaccination program has been in place to eradicate, um, small parks, uh, but in the 1970s, um, they found a, a virus, uh, in, in monkeys, uh, in the democratic re Republic of Congo, um, where it's, it, it was obviously very reminiscent to small parks, but it lesser symptoms. Um, and since then it's actually made the transition from animal to human transmission, uh, which is where it's, it's, it's now an issue. Uh, it's, it's pretty much endemic to, uh, west and central Africa. That's where most people will, will find that they they'll catch this particular virus. Um, it's only recently, um, gone beyond that, um, there and travel related, um, transmission has become more of a problem, so it's moved out and we, we've seen quite a few outbreaks in, uh, across the globe actually from, from the us, uh, Europe, UK, Australia, um, it's become quite prevalent. And, and at the moment it's a little bit of a mystery as to why it's made that, that, uh, transmission jump. Um, and there's a lot of work that's been done by, um, the various authorities for the CDC and the world health organization are looking at this now, um, they've examined, they've examined the, the, the genome for the, for the virus and they've, they've not really seen any difference between what it was and how it is now. Uh, but the transmission seems to have become, um, slightly more prevalent. So it could be, um, something linked to the fact that the smallpox vaccination, that that was quite common people have the, the actual, uh, the resilience that we have to, that particular virus has, has diminished. And therefore, because of that, monkeypox has become more prevalent. Um, so, so that's, that's the virus. It it's, it's concerning obviously, because we're still in this recovery phase from COVID 19, where people have been very concerned about, um, you know, infection and, and various things. The symptoms for monkeypox are quite mild by comparison. Um, they're very in, it's very, it's very obvious. Um, the monkey monkeypox symptoms explain what they are. Um, and it's part of the, the actual process we form we've put in place the precautions, we have to look at symptoms. Um, so, so what we, what we would normally look for in regards to, to symptoms, and there's two distinct phases with monkey parks. The first phase is more like an incubation invasion period, um, where you have things like fever, intense headache, um, swelling of the lymph node and lymph nodes and things like back pain and, and various just very, you know, how you would feel with, you know, maybe the symptoms of COVID. Um, and this is where it's slightly confusing for people. Um, but also it can be confused for things like chicken parks, um, measles, and, and obviously small parks. So it's, you know, in that phase, it's, it's easily confused for other things, the, the next phase, which is the most serious phase, which is the skin eruption phase, where you get sort of a rash and then eventually it turns into, to blisters. So this is usually between one to three days after you've had a fever, you'll start to see the, um, rash on the extremities in the face. Um, and then this will then turn into, into sort of blisters, uh, and then S scab over. And, and these, these are things, these lesions and various different things, and are, are the main method of transmission. Um, so this is where close proximity is required. So as with COVID, you had that there was a much greater chance of transmission through respiratory, uh, transmission. So people breathing out, um, the actual virus in with the case, in the case of monkeypox, it is possible to have respiratory transfer, however, it's less likely, and it's more in relation to contact with direct contact, with a person who's infected. Um, and normally they they're in that phase where they should know that there's something wrong with them. So it's easy to, you know, it's, it's easier to identify.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Okay. And then, you know, speaking to Intertech, crystals, you know, travel risk management and assurance, um, are there specific precautions that hotels and businesses should be taking? Um, and is this different to things that we've talked about for COVID 19 precautions?

Speaker 2: 5:42

Uh, it's not, it's not that different actually. Um, one of the things that one of the, one of the, the silver linings to the COVID 19, um, situation, we have to look on the bright side of that is that a lot of the precautions that people took had a, had a gr you know, a great impact on the reduction of transmission. So general illnesses, food poisonings, all sorts of different things were, were greatly reduced due to all of the things that we did to COVID 19. Now, there are some, there's some slight differences with regards to, um, monkey parks, but, but people that have got the use to this now at infection control and managing that should find this relatively simple to adapt to, um, what, how we generally break it down. Obviously, symptom recognition is a, is a big thing. Um, making sure that staff are aware of what the symptoms are, so that they one, if they, if they feel themselves now that obviously with regards to hospitality businesses, you, you live or die based on your, on your, your staff. And if they are then subject to, if they've got the virus, they could potentially transmit it to quite a wide variety of variety of people. So what we're asking is that, that we, we explain the symptoms, we make sure they're aware of what those are, so they can identify them in, in themselves or in others. Um, and if they have the symptoms, then they would then normally go into an isolation, um, process. So they would just keep themselves away from other people and prevent the spread. And not normally the, the, the chain of infection is usually about one to six people, um, from, from, you know, patient zero to, to the eventual, um, decline of the infection. Um, so if you can identify it quickly, you can prevent that from happening. The next thing we, we, we, we recommend, uh, particularly in areas where there is, you know, there's wildlife nearby there's forests or whatever. Um, if there is a history or if there's, if there's, uh, evidence of monkeypox in the particular area, we we'd recommend that they there's a restriction on animal contact. Um, because the main transmission route apart from person to person contact is animal to human. Uh, and it would be in typically in things like rats, mice, squirrels, um, there's no sign at the moment that it's been transmitted to, to cats or dogs. Um, but however, that there's a concern that it might get into the, into the domestic pet, um, area, but mainly we wanna make sure that people aren't coming into contact with these animals. Uh, and then obviously then they they'll they'll have the same, the animals are the symptom symptoms, and they're harder to spot sometimes when they've got these symptoms and then people will potentially contract monkeypox from those, from those animals. Um, obviously from a hotel perspective, we would expect good pest control. And then as part of our key concepts of, you know, food hygiene, and then general hygiene, um, is ex expectation of a pest control, um, regime within the property. And with that, we would expect them to have pest control. We'd expect them to pest proof their property as best as possible. So obviously, you know, rats and mice, they love hotels because of the, the perforation of, of waste food or food availability. Um, also potentially refuge. If, if it's in an area where they, they, you know, they can actually use the, they can live in within the hotel, um, infrastructure. Um, so we would be looking to make sure that the property is, is checked for, um, cracks or, or entrance points that, that the pest can use to enter the building. And then, and then that would then prevent their transmission because obviously these animals were moving around the property and their contaminate surfaces. So surface contamination might not be obvious cause there might be, some might, might come from outside of the property, might come into the property. And then obviously then the surfaces would be touched by these, these paths, um, which is very, very important that we have that in place. The next thing we would actually look at then is, is preventing the consumption of infected animals. Now, you know, Bush meat is, is something that is consumed in certain countries, and this is why it's proliferated within certain parts of Africa. Um, however also there's a potential that the contaminated, um, you know, animals could enter the food chain. Um, if suppliers aren't protecting, um, the actual foods that, that they're providing to you. Um, so therefore there's a general requirement to make sure that all meat that is consumed is thoroughly cooked to destroy any chance of virus. And we, we recommend this anyway, it's, it's a standard practice to prevent, um, you know, food poisoning, um, and that the cooking process and making, maintaining temperature control, you know, is something that we are very, very keen, um, that the hotels do anywhere, regardless the viruses. But, but again, you do have people that request raw meat, um, and that sort of thing needs to be prohibited, um, where possible to prevent, um, you know, prevent any viruses that are in the meat to be transferred to the individuals. Once we've looked at that, um, then we'd be then looking at minimizing close contact with infected persons. Now it's not as transmissible as COVID, um, that that's that's for sure. It's not, it's not the same it, but again, you know, it, it can be transmitted from person to person, through contact with skin contact, with clothing, um, contact with, with things that they've used items that they've used. Um, so it's really important to maintain good personal hygiene, uh, making sure that that realistically, any, anybody who's got a potentially potentially infected is, is treated with, with obviously with courtesy, but, but they, they are isolated. And then their ability to infect others is reduced by your protocols in place. And obviously if you have our palsy check program, which is what, what we use for, for hotels to maintain infection control procedures, that is something then that will be part parcel of what your standard operating procedures would be. And if an emergency situation occurs, you identified somebody who had clear signs of monkey box virus, you would then you'd implement your, your emergency procedures for cleaning and, and protecting staff as well. Okay. Um, mask ING, isn't not as much of an issue, um, with regards to, uh monkeypox, um, because it takes much more respiratory material, uh, and it's close proximity, so it's can be considered a sexually transmitted, um, disease. Um, the virus, um, it's usually prolonged mouth to mouth contact, um, or actual contact with, with lesions or blood or from the actual, uh, individual scabs as well of, of the individual that's infected. Um, so a mass whilst they potentially will prevent any respiratory transmission it's not normally required. Um, but again, it depends on your protocols and, and the situation you have in place. And then what we are also then looking at and finding one of the, the main areas that we are particularly concerned of is cleaning, uh, and laundry management. So, um, when we look at things like laundry, so if somebody was infected and they're staying in your hotel, there's a very good chance that the bedding and the linen that they came into contact and that, that in their room is now infected. Um, now if that happens, you'll be then looking at your procedures to make sure that when housekeeping and laundry staff are interacting with that material, they are not putting themselves at risk and also not then subsequently transmitting that to other other rooms and to other people. Uh, and they'd be then following the standard procedures for making sure that the bedding is, is collected, uh, with personal protective equipment, uh, in place to make sure that they're safe. And then it would be then transferred to the laundry in an environment where it would then be washed at a high temperature, maybe six degrees C um, with normal detergents. But, but again, you know, you might wanna add bleach or, or, you know, um, chlorine to make sure that that, that that's removed any, any signs of any potential, um, infection transmission, the same with surfaces, uh, when we're looking at, um, you know, contaminated surfaces, lots of high touch, uh, points as we did with COVID, we'd be looking to make sure that the cleaning protocols and cleaning regime in place, uh, and emergency cleaning protocols include, um, Detert that are effective at, you know, cleaning the thing. And then a disinfection phase of the cleaning, where you'd be then looking at using, um, you know, chlorine solutions. So a thousand parts per million floors solutions, um, to, uh, to basically disinfect the surface, remove any signs, any, uh, chance that the virus will be transmitted. Um, so there's lots of different things that we need to do, um, that, you know, again, most of these things mirror the sort of arrangements that we have in place for COVID. We don't want people to feel that, that the, the COVID precautions, which were quite extreme, um, would continue forever. But, but our, our recommendations to our hotel clients is to make sure that they adapt, um, they put something in place that will protect themselves, their staff, and also the guests and prevent the transmission. And hopefully if, if these things are put in place that should prevent, um, this becoming another situation where travel restrictions are in place, hotels are isolated, that sort of thing. So, so those are the sort of precautions we, we put in place.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Great. Um, and, um, so, so if someone who's listening right now, um, wants more information or assistance, um, where can we direct them?

Speaker 2: 15:04

Okay. So, so it's very important that with regards to infection control, that we, we use reliable sources of information because there's lots of, um, not scam ING, but there's, there's lots of sensationalized sources of information that, that take certain parts. And then they exaggerate them to the point where people become paranoid and, and they don't actually do the things they need to do. Um, we would normally recommend using sources of information like the world health organization or the American, uh, consent of disease control. Um, the, the, they would tend to provide very comp you know, complex information, reasonably easy to understand. Um, but, but again, it, it develops over time, again, with particular monkey monkey parks. There is this little mystery about how it's beginning to transmit quite so, um, so readily. Um, so obviously keeping in informed in there, and we'd also expect you to, to look at incidents of monkey parks within your area, um, from our perspective, you know, if you are working with us on, you know, the, some of the products that we provide, uh, particularly our pose check service, where we are constantly, you know, con conducting surveillance related to, um, infection, merging infections, uh, you know, our pose programs and our posi sine programs and or consultants that will be out in the field will be able to provide a lot of, you know, onsite help to make sure that you've, you've protected yourself. And you have a, a risk management program in place that, that prevents the spread of infection of, of something that while's unpleasant. Um, it's, you know, that, that the, you know, it's a relatively mild condition, um, with, you know, once you've conducted, it takes two to four weeks for it, for it to pass. Um, but again, it's inconvenient. Um, and we, we want to prevent any travel restrictions in the future. So, you know, please come to us, we are very, very happy to help you, um, clients or not. But to, to talk about this as a, as a, you know, a way of preventing this affecting the industry, um, negatively, um, but I think between us and all the things that we can do, we can, we can stop this being a, a major issue.

Speaker 1: 17:10

Well, thank you so much for coming to speak with us about this.

Speaker 2: 17:14

No problem. It's good to talk.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Thank you for listening. Please follow us and like us on Twitter and LinkedIn links to which are in the description of this podcast. Thank you and have a great day.