Smallpox

For nine years, Alaska health officials have been aware of an unusual virus causing rare, relatively mild illnesses in the Fairbanks area.But a recent case in another part of the state — this one resulting in a man's death — has brought new attention to the  Alaskapox virus.Here's some background on the virus.What is Alaskapox?Alaskapox belongs to a family of brick-shaped viruses that can infect animals and humans. These bugs, known as orthopoxviruses, tend to cause lesions, or pox, on the skin. Each has its own…

If 2022 was the year mpox infections exploded globally, 2023 was the year much of the world stopped paying attention.Yet Canadian researchers, in collaboration with scientists working on the ground in hot spots such as Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), are still shining a spotlight on the virus that sparked last year's unprecedented global outbreak — and one that still seems capable of new surprises. One joint Canadian-DRC research team, co-led by Jason Kindrachuk from the University of Manitoba, has…

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, could be poised to make a comeback in the U.S. Several states have reported a recent increase in cases, including in people vaccinated against the viral disease. It’s possible that large outbreaks could once again emerge in the near future, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionwarned.Won’t Virtual Reality Make Me Sick?Mpox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a close cousin to the smallpox virus. Like smallpox, its symptoms typically include flu-like illness and a distinctive…

A health care worker prepares a dose of the JYNNEOS Monkeypox vaccine at a pop-up vaccination clinic in Los Angeles, California, on August 9, 2022.Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty ImagesThe maker of the mpox vaccine is looking at ways to dramatically scale up its production capacity to prepare for a potential threat from smallpox.Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin said the rapid spread of mpox last year was a wake-up call for the company, which is based in Denmark."If it wasn't mpox but it was smallpox, we are completely at…

Anyone hoping to stay ahead of the next viral outbreak might want to avoid TikTok, new research suggests. The study, published Tuesday in BMJ Global Health, found that TikTok videos discussing the viral disease monkeypox, which spread widely around the world and infected tens of thousands of Americans last year, often provided inaccurate or incomplete information, and were generally poor quality. Videos made by self-identified medical professionals did tend to be more informative than those made by the general public,…

The Covid pandemic wasn't the first time that America has found itself split along ideological seams over infectious disease, nor was the Spanish Flu in 1919. Even when America was still a collection of colonies, we held bitter disagreements on public health policy.  During the run-up to the Revolutionary War, the 13 colonies found themselves besieged by a widespread and deadly outbreak of smallpox, carried here aboard a recently arrived slave ship. With that disease also arrived our best defense against it — inoculation…

Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)A Texas resident has died with monkeypox, local health officials reported Tuesday—seemingly the first death linked to the emerging viral disease ever documented in the U.S. The person reportedly had preexisting health issues, and officials are still investigating the extent to which the infection may have contributed to their death.Monkeypox, a relative of the extinct smallpox virus, has recently spread far beyond the few areas of Africa where it was known to be endemic. There have been …

As supplies of vaccines against monkeypox remain constrained and the number of people contracting the disease continues to mount, physicians and researchers are looking to the drug tecovirimat for relief. In animals infected with monkeypox, the antiviral has been shown to lower the amount of virus in their bodies and reduce the number of fluid-filled ‘pox’ lesions forming on their skin. Efficacy data in humans, however, are much more limited, making some researchers and regulatory agencies hesitant about authorizing…

The global outbreak of monkeypox has so far led to more than 24,000 cases in over 80 countries, and the World Health Organization has warned that the window of opportunity to contain the disease and prevent it from becoming endemic outside Africa is rapidly closing. Vaccines represent a potentially crucial measure. Monkeypox vaccines are already being deployed around the world, and news reports have described a “scramble” as countries desperately try to secure some of the limited number of available doses. There are…

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