Monkeypox

Monkeypox, like chicken pox, cowpox, raccoonpox, camelpox and smallpox, belongs to the family of viruses known as orthopoxvirus. The risk of contracting monkeypox is relatively low, unless you have been in close contact with one of the few infected animals in the midwest.

Monkeypox was first was discovered in the study of primate tissue in 1970 in the Congo. Despite it’s name it is thought it’s most common in African squirrels and rats.

Of all the orthopoxviruses none has affected humans as severely as the smallpox virus. Compared to the 33-year old monkeypox virus, small pox may have been plaguing humans for the past 10,000 years. Notables who are suspected of dying of smallpox include Pharaoh Ramses the Fifth of Egypt, The Greek war leader Pericles, and Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome.

Shakespeare’s curse of “a pox upon thee” appeared in many of his works. In fact he included a pox on the following, “Your love letter, this joke, your throath, the devil, your bottle, the wrinkles, this gut, her green-sickness.”

Resources:

Learn more about monkeypox.

What you should know about monkeypox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More about the symptoms and prevention of monkeypox.

June 14, 2003