The number of cases of monkeypox infection is growing and causes understandable concern. Let’s answer some of the questions that people have about this virus.
Dr. Anastasia
What kind of disease is it?
Monkeypox virus belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus of the family Poxviridae. It is one of the deadliest diseases known to man. For centuries, smallpox has killed millions of people around the world. But thanks to global immunization programs, the deadly infectious disease was eliminated in the late 1970s. Mass vaccination stopped in the United States and a number of countries in 1972, and in WHO member states in 1986. Today, the live virus exists in small numbers under strictly controlled conditions in laboratories in the United States and Russia, exclusively for medical research.
Where did it come from?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), monkeypox was first detected in 1958 in a group of monkeys kept for research. The firs...
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