Monkeypox Outbreaks: Where They Are and What We Know So Far - Gizmodo

In the UK, at least seven people are thought to have come down with it, with the first reported case believed to have contracted it while in Nigeria.

It’s a close cousin to the smallpox virus, the only human germ so far to be fully eradicated.

Like smallpox, monkeypox infection causes distinct bumpy rashes that usually start in the face and spread throughout the body, along with flu-like symptoms.

Smallpox vaccines should remain protective against monkeypox and can be given after exposure to prevent illness, so they can be used as a part of a “ring-vaccination” strategy to short-circuit outbreaks.

Poxviruses are known for causing cross-immunity to other related viruses (indeed, the weakened virus in the classic smallpox vaccine isn’t even smallpox).

And this buffer of smallpox immunity may also have hampered monkeypox from spreading in humans.

“This ‘declining immunity’ is less due to waning immunity at the individual level, and more due to people with immunity dying, and people without immunity being born and then staying non-immune,” Walker told Gizmodo in a Twitter message.

Walker notes that some researchers have long warned about monkeypox or similar viruses someday filling in the niche left behind by smallpox, and some have argued that it’s a major factor in why the germ made a reappearance in Nigeria starting in 2017, following four decades of zero reported cases.