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
. 2022 Aug;16(4):507-517.
doi: 10.1007/s11684-022-0952-z. Epub 2022 Aug 9.

Unusual global outbreak of monkeypox: what should we do?

Miaojin Zhu #  1 , Jia Ji #  1 , Danrong Shi #  1 , Xiangyun Lu  1 , Baohong Wang  1   2 , Nanping Wu  1   2 , Jie Wu  3   4 , Hangping Yao  5   6 , Lanjuan Li  7   8
Affiliations
Review

Unusual global outbreak of monkeypox: what should we do?

Miaojin Zhu et al. Front Med. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Recently, monkeypox has become a global concern amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Monkeypox is an acute rash zoonosis caused by the monkeypox virus, which was previously concentrated in Africa. The re-emergence of this pathogen seems unusual on account of outbreaks in multiple nonendemic countries and the incline to spread from person to person. We need to revisit this virus to prevent the epidemic from getting worse. In this review, we comprehensively summarize studies on monkeypox, including its epidemiology, biological characteristics, pathogenesis, and clinical characteristics, as well as therapeutics and vaccines, highlighting its unusual outbreak attributed to the transformation of transmission. We also analyze the present situation and put forward countermeasures from both clinical and scientific research to address it.

Keywords: infectious diseases; monkeypox; poxviruses; vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. CDC. 2022 Monkeypox Outbreak Global Map. 2022. Available at the US CDC website (accessed July 8, 2022)
    1. Frey SE, Belshe RB. Poxvirus zoonoses—putting pocks into context. N Engl J Med. 2004;350(4):324–327. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp038208. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Henderson DA. The looming threat of bioterrorism. Science. 1999;283(5406):1279–1282. doi: 10.1126/science.283.5406.1279. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Weiss MM, Weiss PD, Mathisen G, Guze P. Rethinking smallpox. Clin Infect Dis. 2004;39(11):1668–1673. doi: 10.1086/425745. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bozzette SA, Boer R, Bhatnagar V, Brower JL, Keeler EB, Morton SC, Stoto MA. A model for a smallpox-vaccination policy. N Engl J Med. 2003;348(5):416–425. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa025075. - DOI - PubMed