Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2006 Sep;55(3):478-81.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2006.05.061.

Monkeypox: an epidemiologic and clinical comparison of African and US disease

Tanya A Sale  1 , John W Melski, Erik J Stratman
Affiliations
Review

Monkeypox: an epidemiologic and clinical comparison of African and US disease

Tanya A Sale et al. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2006 Sep.

Abstract

Monkeypox is a double-stranded DNA virus and a member of the genus Orthopoxvirus. Human monkeypox was first identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) in 1970. The first outbreak in the western hemisphere occurred in the spring of 2003. Important epidemiologic and clinical differences exist between human monkeypox in the United States and in Africa, including sex distribution, case fatality, morphology of skin lesions, and associated lymphadenopathy. These divergent clinical presentations could be caused by mode of transmission (skin inoculation vs ingestion), the skin color of affected patients, the training backgrounds of those who saw and documented disease outbreaks, the virulence of monkeypox strains involved, nutritional status, access to advanced medical care, and the prevalence of prior smallpox vaccinations.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Feinberg H.M., Solodow J.B. Out of Africa. J Afr Hist. 2002;43:255–261.
    1. Frey S.E., Belshe R.B. Poxvirus zoonoses–putting pocks into context. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:324–327. - PubMed
    1. Reed K.D., Melski J.W., Graham M.B., Regnery R.L., Sotir M.J., Wegner M.V., et al. The detection of monkeypox in humans in the western hemisphere. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:342–350. - PubMed
    1. von Magnus P., Andersen E.K., Peterson K.B., Birch-Andersen A. A pox-like disease in cynomolgus monkeys. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand. 1959;46:156–176.
    1. Arita I., Henderson D.A. Smallpox and monkeypox in non-human primates. Bull World Health Organ. 1968;39:277–283. - PMC - PubMed