Timeline A Viral History of Monkeypox

TIMELINE

A VIRAL HISTORY OF MONKEYPOX

Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) that shares its lineage with the variola virus – the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are typically milder than smallpox and cases are rarely fatal, but, recently, the virus has become a primary concern for public health officials in smallpoxfree areas across the globe.

1958 1970

Virus discovered in monkeys in Copenhagen

The monkeypox virus was first identified in laboratory monkeys that were being used for polio vaccine research in Copenhagen, Denmark. Interestingly, these Asian monkeys from Singapore didn’t contract the virus until two months after their arrival in Denmark – and the reason is yet to be explained.

First human case in Central Africa

The first human case of monkeypox was detected in a nine-month-old boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For the next three decades, monkeypox outbreaks were isolated to Central and West Africa. Two variations were identified: the more severe Congo Basin clade and the West African clade.

2003 2018 2022

First outbreak outside of Africa

Beginning in May 2003, 71 cases of human monkeypox were identified in six Midwestern US states. The outbreak began when a three year-old girl was bitten by a prairie dog (a type of squirrel) that had been infected by rats imported from Ghana. No deaths were reported.

Monkeypox travels

In the UK, the first cases of monkeypox were found in two individuals who had recently travelled from Nigeria. Public health authorities responded quickly to implement infection control; of 134 potential contacts, only four became ill. Subsequent cases in Israel, Singapore and the US were also travel-related.

Monkeypox declared international public health emergency

The rapid spread of the virus across 69 nonendemic countries between May and July has caused the World Health Organisation to declare ‘a public health emergency of international concern’. As of the 25th July 2022, there have been 18,095 cases with 75 deaths from 75 countries in the past year.