Monkeypox FAQ: How is it transmitted? Where did it come from? What are the symptoms? Does smallpox vaccine prevent it?
Monkeypox FAQ: How is it transmitted? Where did it come from? What are the symptoms? Does smallpox vaccine prevent it?
Professor of Medicine, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Western University
With cases reported in a number of countries, human monkeypox infection is generating global interest and concern as an emerging infectious disease threat even in the midst of a slowly relenting COVID-19 pandemic.
What is monkeypox virus?
Monkeypox is a member of a closely related group of viruses in the Orthopoxvirus genus that includes smallpox, cowpox and camelpox. Monkeypox virus was first discovered in the summer of 1958 as a non-lethal, smallpox-like, skin disease of captive monkeys at a research institute in Denmark.
The name monkeypox is a misnomer since terrestrial African rodents (rats and squirrels) serve as the natural reservoir of the virus, while monkeys and other primates are believed to be accidental hosts.
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