The report of the outbreak of Monkeypox virus in the Central
African Republic on October 13th got me thinking about this scary
virus with a fun name. The monkeypkx virus that causes monkeypox is in the same
family as smallpox, and clinically looks very similar to this eradicated
disease. Googling pictures of these ailments is not recommended for the faint
of heart.
Fortunately this virus is very rare, and a U.S. outbreak in
2003 was the only time that this virus was documented outside of Africa.
Transmission of this virus occurs via human to infected
person/animal/material, which means that eradication efforts have to be wary of
three modes of transmission. First, the virus can be transmitted via broken
skin, large respiratory droplets, other bodily fluids, and infected linens or
clothes. The main reservoir for this
disease is still largely unknown.
As of now there is currently no know effective treatment for
this disease, which is scary considering that it was first documented in the
1970’s, however, it is not nearly as lethal as its sister disease smallpox, so there
is no need to worry. Smallpox had a
fatality rate of about 30%, while monkeypox is only about 1-10%.
There is promising research in using smallpox to create a
vaccine for monkeypox, but nothing has been approved for human use yet.
-Cynthia Taylor
Sources: http://www.who.int/csr/don/13-october-2016-monkeypox-caf/en/
http://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/about.html
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