Human-monkey pox disease: An educational CME article

Abstract

The zoonotic disease human-monkey pox was first reported in 1970, twelve years after the isolation of monkey pox virus in a laboratory in Denmark in 1958. For decades the disease remained confined to West Africa and the Congo basin. However, during the early 2000s, the disease appeared in the USA and Sudan. On the 31st of May, 2002, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported the occurrence of 557 confirmed cases worldwide including 321 confirmed from 17 European Union/European Economic Area countries, and 236 confirmed cases occurred in ten non-endemic countries outside the EU/EEA. Most of the cases outside the UK, Canada and United States were linked to travel. However, cases with no travel history nor contact with a patient, animals were also reported. The World health organization could not provide an explanation for this multi-country outbreak because for many cases there was no travel links to an endemic region. The aim of this Continuing Medical Education (CME) paper is to provide a practical overview of human-monkey pox disease.