The past 24 hours has seen monkeypox push covid-19 off the front pages after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced what it called the “highly unusual” spread of the virus to countries in which it is rarely (if ever) found.
The health body says 92 cases have so far been found in 12 countries, including the US, Canada and nine European countries.
Some 50 other suspected cases of the rare viral infection, which can spread from animals to humans and between people, are being investigated, and “more cases are likely to be reported,” it said.
How worried should you be? You shouldn’t be quaking in your boots just yet, but you should be keeping an eye on it. Good news: There’s a vaccine. The smallpox vaccine is c. 85% effective against monkeypox.
The bad news: Smallpox died out in the 1970s thanks to a concerted global vaccination drive, so anybody younger than about 50 has never been jabbed.
The fatality rate is probably about 1% in poor populations in West Africa. Ed Yong won the Pulitzer for his work on covid-19, go read his So, have you heard about monkeypox for a very balanced dive into what we do and don’t know.
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