Why is it called Monkeypox?

More than a hundred confirmed cases of monkeypox in humans have been identified outside of African countries since early May. Monkeypox cases outside of Africa are rare, so this outbreak has raised alarm bells around the world. In spite of its name, monkeypox in humans doesn’t have much to do with monkeys. Here’s how the disease got its misleading name. Why is it called monkeypox? Humans aren’t the only primates that can catch monkeypox. Monkeys can catch it, too, and that’s where the disease got its name. The virus that causes monkeypox was first spotted in 1958 among a colony of monkeys used for research that was imported to Denmark. The disease caused lesions that were similar to those seen in smallpox — a cousin of monkeypox — so the scientists called it monkeypox. More than a decade later, in 1970, the first human case of monkeypox was identified. It was diagnosed in a child in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The name of this virus is a terrible misnomer. But we’re not changing it today,“ Andrea McCollum told Insider. McCollum is an epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has been investigating monkeypox outbreaks for years in several African countries. A handler holds a rat undergoing training to detect mines during a training on an inactive landmine field in Siem Reap province July 9, 2015. Gambian pouched rats were deployed to Cambodia from Tanzania in April by a Belgian non-profit organization, APOPO, to help clear mines. Are monkeys involved in human monkeypox? The short answer is no: Monkeys likely have nothing to do with the disease humans are getting. Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease , which means that humans catch the virus from animals that are sick. Humans are thought to be exposed to the virus occasionally only by close contact with the ill animals — for instance, through scratches, bites, or the preparation of bush meat. Human-to-human transmission can happen, but is thought to be rare. We don’t know exactly which species carry monkeypox in the wild. Scientists believe they are contained within West and Central Africa. #Monkeypox #VIRUS #VirusDisease #pandemia #outbreak #poxvirus #infection #smallpox #lesions #skinNodules #Orthopoxvirus #CowpoxVirus #monkeypoxVirus #disease #germ #illness #microbe #microorganism #pathogen #monkeypoxOutbreak #whatIsMonkeypox #monkeypoxSymptoms #monkeypoxDisease #monkeypoxOutbreak2022 #monkeypoxVaccine #whatIsMonkeypox2022 #monkeypoxVirusNews #whatIsMonkeypoxVirus #simpsonsMonkeypox #newVirusMonkeypox #monkeypoxGay #monkeypoxUk