What is monkeypox and how does it spread? Here are 6 things to know

Health officials around the world are keeping watch for more cases because, for the first time, the disease appears to be spreading among people who didn't travel to Africa.
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European and American health authorities have identified a number of cases of monkeypox in recent days, mostly in young men. It's a surprising outbreak of a disease that rarely appears outside Africa. Health officials around the world are keeping watch for more cases because, for the first time, the disease appears to be spreading among people who didn't travel to Africa. They stress, however, that the risk to the general population is low.

Here are 6 things to know about the disease: 

> Monkeypox is a virus that originates in wild animals like rodents and primates, and occasionally jumps to people. Most human cases have been in central and west Africa, where the disease is endemic. The illness was first identified by scientists in 1958 when there were two outbreaks of a pox-like disease in research monkeys, thus the name monkeypox. The first known human infection was in 1970, in a 9-year-old boy in a remote part of Congo. 

> Monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. Transmission of the disease can also occur via the placenta from mother to foetus (which can lead to congenital Monkeypox) or close contact during and after birth, the WHO says. While close physical contact is a well-known risk factor for transmission, it is unclear at this time if monkeypox can be transmitted specifically through sexual transmission routes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

> Monkeypox belongs to the same virus family as smallpox but causes milder symptoms. Most patients only experience fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious illness may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body. The incubation period is from about five days to three weeks. Most people recover within about two to four weeks without needing to be hospitalised. Monkeypox can be fatal for up to one in 10 people and is thought to be more severe in children. People exposed to the virus are often given one of several smallpox vaccines, which have been shown to be effective against monkeypox. Anti-viral drugs are also being developed.

> The WHO estimates there are thousands of monkeypox infections in about a dozen African countries every year. Most are in Congo, which reports about 6,000 cases annually, and Nigeria, with about 3,000 cases a year. Patchy health monitoring systems mean many infected people are likely missed, experts say. Isolated cases of monkeypox are occasionally spotted outside Africa, including in the USA and Britain. The cases are typically associated with travel to Africa or contact with animals from areas where the disease is more common.

> What’s different about the cases now is that it’s the first time monkeypox appears to be spreading among people who didn't travel to Africa. In Europe, infections have been reported in Britain, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Monkeypox has not previously been documented to have spread through sex, but it can be transmitted through close contact with infected people, their body fluids and their clothing or bedsheets.

> Amid monkeypox cases being reported from some countries, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has directed the National Centre for Disease Control and the ICMR to keep a close watch on the situation. The Union Health Ministry has also directed airport and port health officers to be vigilant, officials said. "They have been instructed that any sick passenger with a travel history to Monkeypox-affected countries be isolated and samples sent to the BSL4 facility of the National Institute of Virology in Pune for an investigation," an official source said. 

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