How does monkeypox spread

Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required. Other human-to-human methods of transmission include direct contact with body fluids or lesion material, and indirect contact with lesion material, such as through contaminated clothing or linens. The reservoir host main disease carrier of monkeypox is still unknown although African rodents are suspected to play a part in transmission.

The virus that causes monkeypox has only been recovered isolated twice from an animal in nature. Monkeypox virus was first found in laboratory monkeys in It has also been found in different kinds of rodents and primates in Africa. The first and only human cases of monkeypox in the United States occurred in the Midwest in Before , the only human cases of monkeypox occurred in central and western parts of Africa. Monkeypox virus can spread to people when they are bitten by an animal infected with monkeypox or when they touch the blood, body fluids, or lesions of an infected animal.

In the United States in , monkeypox was reported among several people who had contact with sick pet prairie dogs that had contact with imported African rodents. Sometimes, monkeypox virus is spread from person to person through close contact or by touching body fluids of a person with monkeypox. Serology may be helpful. Treatment of monkeypox is mainly supportive. The antiretroviral drug cidofovir has been effective in vitro and in animal studies, but its efficacy against monkeypox in humans in unknown.

The toxic effects of this drug must also be considered. The efficacy of vaccinia immune globulin VIG in cases of monkeypox is unknown. The human smallpox vaccine is thought to help prevent monkeypox infections, as well as decrease the severity of the symptoms.

Post-exposure vaccination may also be helpful. The CDC currently recommends smallpox vaccination only in people who have been or are likely to be exposed to monkeypox. The World Health Organization does not recommend routine vaccination of healthy people in endemic areas, as the benefits of vaccination do not appear to outweigh the risks and expense.

In particular, HIV infection, with its concurrent immunosuppression, is common in the parts of Africa where monkeypox occurs. Cases of monkeypox in humans are rare and usually zoonotic. Most outbreaks in the past have been short-lived and self-limiting, with only limited person-to-person spread.

Through the mid s, estimates of the human-to-human transmission rates ranged from 3. Some researchers speculate that people may have become more susceptible to monkeypox with the ending of vaccination for smallpox. The increased person-to-person transmission rate remains to be confirmed, as the outbreak occurred during a period of civil war and the study was cut short.

During an outbreak of monkeypox in the U. Two of 79 patients became severely ill, one with encephalitis. No deaths occurred to July 1, Old and New World monkeys and apes, a variety of rodents including rats, mice, squirrels, and prairie dogs and rabbits are susceptible to infection. Approximately nine outbreaks have been documented in captive primates, mainly in rhesus macaques and cynomolgus monkeys.

Infections have also been reported in languors, baboons, chimpanzees, orangutans, marmosets, gorillas, gibbons, owl-faced monkeys Cercopithecus hamlyn , and squirrel monkeys. No cases have been reported in dogs or cats to date; however, the full host range is still unknown and these and other domestic species may be susceptible.

Antibodies to the monkeypox virus have been found in a wide variety of nonhuman primates, rodents, and squirrels in Africa. The natural reservoir s of the monkeypox virus remains to be established but is thought to be mainly rodents. Two species of African squirrels, Funisciurus anerythrus and Heliosciurus rufobrachium , have been suggested as possible reservoirs or vectors. It is not known whether primates also maintain the infection in the wild, or are only incidental hosts.

During the current outbreak in the U. An imported exotic mammal, possibly the Gambian giant rat, is thought to have transmitted the virus to prairie dogs. In one study, experimentally infected cynomolgus monkeys developed symptoms 6 to 7 days after aerosol exposure to a lethal dose of virus. The CDC recommends that animals that have been exposed to monkeypox be quarantined for one month after exposure.

Non-human primates In non-human primates, monkeypox usually occurs as a self-limiting rash. The initial symptoms are a fever and 1 to 4 mm cutaneous papules, which develop into pustules then crust over. A typical monkeypox lesion has a red, necrotic, depressed center, surrounded by epidermal hyperplasia. The number of lesions varies from a few individual pocks to extensive, coalescing lesions.

The crusts over the pustules eventually drop off, leaving small scars. In one outbreak in common marmosets, the skin lesions persisted for weeks.

Some animals have only skin lesions. In more severe cases, coughing, nasal discharge, dyspnea, anorexia, facial edema, oral ulcers, or lymphadenopathy may also be seen.

Disseminated disease, with visceral lesions, is uncommon in natural infections. Pneumonia is common only in monkeys infected experimentally by aerosol. More than people in 27 states have been exposed to monkeypox.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently monitoring those cases. Is monkeypox spreading in the US? The resident took two flights during his trip. How does monkeypox spread? What are monkeypox symptoms?