Monkeypox: Symptoms, causes and treatment for this infectious disease

Monkeypox symtoms include rashes which tend to be more concentrated on the face, palms of the hands and soles of the feet and genitalia. (Image credit: WHO)

Monkeypox is an emerging infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans from infected animals, mostly rodents. Although a person in England has been diagnosed with it, according to the WHO, Monkeypox can spread to other people but person-to-person transmission alone cannot easily sustain an outbreak.

Here's what we know about it so far:

Monkeypox is a rare viral infection similar to human smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980. Although monkeypox is much milder than smallpox, with most infected people recovering within a few weeks, it can in rare cases be fatal.

Symptoms
Symptoms of the viral disease too are similar to smallpox, including fever and rash. It is followed by intense headache, back pain, muscle aches, lack of energy and swollen lymph nodes.

Skin eruptions are also reported in patients of Monkeypox, which begins within 1-3 days of appearance of fever, according to WHO.

The rashes tend to be more concentrated on the face, palms of the hands and soles of the feet and genitalia.

Cases are most often reported from rural areas of Central and West African countries, particularly in regions close to tropical rainforest where people may have contact with infected animals, the international health agency stated.

In the recently reported case, the UK person had recently travelled to Nigeria.

A child affected by Monkeypox, sits on his father's legs while receiving treatment at the centre of the International medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans frontieres - MSF), in Zomea Kaka, in the Lobaya region, in the Central African Republic.

Transmission
Monkeypox is likely to spread through direct contact with respiratory droplets of another person who has the disease in the home or in a health facility, or with contaminated materials such as bedding.

The WHO, however, assured that Monkeypox outbreaks tend to occur in small clusters of a few cases without leading to widespread community transmission. "For this reason, outbreaks can be easily controlled when responded to rapidly," the organisation stated in its website.

Treatment
Although, according to the WHO, there is currently no specific treatment recommended for Monkeypox, vaccination against smallpox is found to be about 85 per cent effective in preventing the disease.