Faced with a small but maturate number of monkeypox vitrine , the UK is now offering a smallpox vaccine to high - danger health care prole and others who have been potentially exposed to the virus , according toReuters .
pharmaceutic party Bavarian Nordic alsoannouncedon Thursday that they ’ve sign a deal with an “ unrevealed European country ” to supply its smallpox vaccinum in response to new cases of monkeypox .
The computer virus that do monkeypox is part of the same kinsfolk as smallpox . Since the two are so closely related , the smallpox vaccine can protect against monkeypox . Past datum from Africa suggests that the smallpox vaccinum may be at least 85 percent in force in forestall monkeypox , per theUS CDC , although there ’s not much data on the content .
“ There is currently a monkeypox vaccine under maturation , but smallpox vaccine and handling could be deployed to control any monkeypox outbreak , but we do n’t know how successful that might be because it ’s never been tried , " Dr Simon Clarke , Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading , commentedon May 17 .
Symptoms of monkeypox are also similar to albeit milder than smallpox – albiet milder – with patients experiencing fever , achy brawniness , egotistical lymph nodes , debilitation , and a blizzard , then latermore visible symptomslikemacules , papules , vesicles , pustules , and blackleg .
While typically most patient sustain from a balmy illness and recover relatively quickly , the disease can be disastrous , especially for younger people , and some people can develop more serious symptoms .
The UK has confirmed a total of nine monkeypox cases this month , with recent cases preponderantly in gay , bisexual , or men who have sex with men ( MSM ) . Many of these cases have also not traveled to West or Central Africa , where the disease is endemic and naturally chance in raging primates and rodent .
The rare infectionhas since been spottedin the US and Spain , while further suspected cases are being investigate in Canada .
Monkeypox is a rarified viral infection first identified in monkeys in 1958 , before being confirm in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo . Since then , human cases of monkeypox have been reported from 11 African state : Benin , Cameroon , the Central African Republic , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Gabon , Ivory Coast , Liberia , Nigeria , the Republic of the Congo , Sierra Leone , and South Sudan .
