Smallpox has not existed in the world since 1980. Monkeypox is still around. Public health officials are worried about a few recent Monkeypox outbreaks. There have been 23 suspected cases in Spain in the last few weeks. There are 15 suspected and five confirmed cases in Portugal and seven in the U.K. The U.S. CDC is concerned. Outside of tropical rainforest areas of Africa, monkeypox is rare. The patterns of recent cases suggest that the virus is more transmissible than in the past. In the U.K., there are two clusters of people who were not in contact with each other, and one of them is a person who traveled to an area with endemic monkeypox. It's too early to say if there's a potential for a Pandemic here, but there are some red flags that make health officials worry. It isn't as deadly as smallpox, but it is still dangerous. According to the World Health Organization, there is a range of death rates. The better the medical care you can get, the better your chances of recovery.
How bad is monkeypox?
Children are particularly hard hit by Monkeypox. People older than 50 are less likely to get it because they were alive during the eradication campaign. If you don't have a vaccine scar on your arm, you probably don't have a vaccine scar at all.
You won't know if you've been bitten until you've had an incubation period of 21 days. The invasion phase lasts for about the first five days, and can include fatigue, headaches, and swelling of the scuplture. Monkeypox and other infections such as chickenpox have swollen lysies.
The first thing you will get is a rash that starts flat and then gets raised with liquid and then oozing. The palms of the hands and soles of the feet are the places where these appear most often. Other, similar diseases don't usually have any on the palms of the hands.
Illness lasts two to four weeks, and then you get better.
There is no treatment for a person with monkeypox. Supportive care may include things like keeping skin lesions clean, making sure your airway is clear, and administering medications to handle infections.
The good news is that we have a vaccine. The vaccine against monkeypox seems to work.
It's not usually from monkeys. The name Monkeypox came from an outbreak in monkeys, but scientists don't know which animals carry the virus the most. Humans and monkeys are also susceptible to rodents.
There is some suspicion that one of the clusters of cases in the U.K. may have come from the same virus.
The WHO reports that the longest identified transmission chain involved six people. If the latest outbreak is more transmissible than before, that could change. Since respiratory droplets are one of the ways of transmission, masks may help.
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