Monkeypox, the resemblance of a defeated enemy
by Antonio Gregorio Dias Junior (twitter: @GregorioDias1) edited by: Layal Liverpool (twitter: @layallivs) Back in the old days, the use of animals for laboratory experimentation was not as tightly regulated as it is today. Consequently, several studies were routinely performed in wild animals caught in tropical rainforests from Asia and Africa. In one of these events, scientists in Denmark isolated the monkeypox virus (MPXV) for the first time in 1958 from a naturally-infected captive monkey. The virus was not believed to cause disease in humans until its first case detected in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Africa. This finding was very alarming as it came during the World Health Organization (WHO)-led global vaccination campaign to eradicate smallpox (1966-1980). Within this context, one could ask what monkeypox has to do with smallpox and why its discovery in humans was so alarming? Monkeypox as a threat during the smallpox eradication campaign The sma...