More than a dozen cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in Europe, the U.K. and the U.S., and experts are unsure as to how long the virus has been around.
Monkeypox has been confirmed in the U.S. and Europe.
Monkeypox is usually found in parts of Central and Western Africa, with infections elsewhere rare and linked to travel to those regions.
The virus can be spread through close contact with an animal, a person or contaminated materials like towels or bedding, but it is not easy to spread between people.
Many people develop a rash within one to five days after the initial symptoms of monkeypox appear.
A person is infectious until all the scabs have fallen off and there is no infectious material underneath.
The disease is usually mild and goes away on its own within a month, and while the WHO said children are at higher risk than adults, it can cause stillbirth and congenital monkeypox.
Cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the U.K., Spain, Portugal and Massachusetts. There are more than a dozen suspected cases in Canada. The cases were not linked to travel to areas where monkeypox is more common and officials think the outbreak signals transmission of the virus in the community.
Gay and bisexual men who have sex with men are more likely to have monkeypox. The pattern of the virus suggests that it could be another route of transmission. Maria Van Kerkhove, leader of the WHO's emerging diseases unit, told STAT News that people should be cautious about fixing on the pattern among men who have sex with men. It is possible that the pattern is a result of where health officials are searching for more cases or that this is a group of people who visit sexual health clinics.
A great deal. It's not clear how or if different clusters are connected, and experts believe the pattern of infections indicates the disease is spreading in the community. It is not clear how long the disease has been going on for, though WHO's Van Kerkhove said it had been going on for a few weeks. The fatality rate for the West African strain is around 1%. The fatality rate for the Congo Basin strain is as high as 10%. Scientists don't know the host animal for the virus. The name monkeypox was given after being identified in laboratory monkeys in the 1950s, and experts believe rodents are the likely source.
There are no approved treatments for monkeypox in the US according to the CDC. It said that the vaccine for smallpox can be used to manage an outbreak. Since the disease was eradicated more than four decades ago, there are more options to tackle it, but they are still limited and supplies are scarce, which means very few people under the age of 40 will have been immunized against it. The U.S. exercised a $119 million option to make the only FDA approved vaccine for the disease, which will be made in two years. It's not clear if the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority exercised this option over the monkeypox outbreak or for another reason.
The first Monkeypox case in the U.S. was reported in Massachusetts.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has a disease called monkeypox.
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