Monkeypox

Monkeypox

By: Mya Bradford

What is Monkey Pox?

After having a rough year with having to social distance, wear masks, and attend online school, it just got worse. There is a disease called Monkey Pox going around and the cases are rising every day. Monkey Pox is where you experience bumps all over your body. You may also experience fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, muscle aches and backache, headache, or respiratory symptoms. The symptoms can last two to four weeks. Monkey Pox is usually transmitted by close contact with an infected person or animal.

Where did Monkey Pox come from?

Monkey Pox was first identified in humans in 1970 when a 9-month-old boy contracted this disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was in a region where smallpox had been eliminated in 1968. Africa had an outbreak of Monkey Pox in 2003 and it was linked to infected pet prairie dogs. The prairie dogs were housed with Gambian pouched rats and dormice that were brought there from Ghana. This outbreak caused the United States to have over 70 cases. As people started traveling from different countries the cases started to rise. Which leads us up to where we are today with all the cases.

How dangerous is Monkey Pox?

Monkey Pox can be dangerous or even deadly depending on how bad you have it. Out of the 19,962 total confirmed cases there have been 12 deaths according to news.un.org. In Pennsylvania, there are 572 cases of Monkey Pox. Most of the time it isn’t dangerous, it's just not very attractive. You are less likely to get Monkey Pox than Covid-19. You get Monkey Pox by direct contact and you get Covid-19 by breathing in air, touching a surface, or having droplets land on the eyes, nose, or mouth. Monkey Pox is not as transmissible. It takes longer to develop and to become transmissible.

How can we prevent Monkey Pox?

We can prevent Monkey Pox by avoiding close contact with people who have a rash that looks like Monkey Pox, not using objects that a person with Monkey Pox has used, and washing your hands often. In Central and West Africa avoid contact with rodents and primates. If you want to take the extra precaution you could even get the JYNNEOS or ACAM2000 vaccine which is approved for smallpox and Monkey Pox. The vaccine is available for people in the high risk group!

What group is most likely to get Monkey Pox?

There are a couple different groups that are most likely to get this disease. That would include: Black and Hispanic people and gay and bisexual men. According to amp.cnn.com, “Nearly 38% of Monkeypox cases are among black people, yet they represent only 12% of the US population.” Their website also stated that “Hispanic or Latino people make up 19% of the US population but account for 29% of the cases as of August 27th, according to the CDC.” Out of everyone who has gotten the vaccination white people make up a half, Hispanics make up a quarter, blacks make up 10%, and Asians make up 10%.

Sources:

Jen Christensen, “Nearly 38% of Monkeypox cases are among black people, yet they represent only 12% of the US population.” cnn.com, “Black and Hispanic People are more likely To get monkeypox but less likely to be vaccinated.”, cnn, 3 September 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/03/health/monkeypox-inequities/index.html 5 September 2022

Mike Stobbe, Carla K, Johnson, Zeke Miller, “About half of vaccine recipients were white and about a quarter were hispanic.” “About 10 percent were black and another 10 percent were asian.” pbs.org, “Fewer black people receiving monkeypox vaccine doses compared to General Public, CDC says.”, pbs, 26 August 2022. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/black-people-receiving-less-monkeypox-vaccine-compared-to-general-public-cdc 5 September 2022

N/D, "Monkeypox typically presents clinically with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications." who.int, "Monkeypox", who, 19 May 2022 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox 5 September 2022.

Carrie Macmillan, "A silver lining about monkeypox, Dr. Azar notes, is that it is much less contagious than COVID-19." yalemedicine.org, "Is Monkeypox more contagious than COVID-19?" yalemedicine, 4 August 2022 https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/monkeypox-symptoms-treatment 5 September 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/us-map.html