06/13/2022

Monkeypox Can Be Contained

However, time might be running out

After witnessing the rise of monkeypox in parts of West and Central Africa over the past two decades, Anne Rimoin has watched the current outbreak with a certain sense of inevitability.

"There’s always been this kind of existential threat about what could potentially happen with a poxvirus," said Rimoin, a professor of epidemiology in the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Were it to get into a population where it could spread efficiently, we could see extended chains of transmission, providing this virus with a runway that it hasn’t had previously."

Back in 2010, Rimoin and colleagues laid out these warning signs in a paper that was largely ignored by public health officials. And now Europe and North America are facing an outbreak of a virus that had been rare in these regions. The latest statistics show that infections have been confirmed in more than 1,400 people across 31 countries.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.