Keywords
Key points
- •Human monkeypox is a zoonosis caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), a double-stranded DNA virus of the family Poxviridae.
- •The frequency and geographic distribution of human monkeypox cases across West and Central Africa have increased in recent years.
- •The clinical presentation of monkeypox is similar to that of smallpox, in terms of symptom onset, timing of rash occurrence, and rash distribution, but generally less severe than smallpox with lower fatality rate and scarification.
- •Most confirmed Monkeypox cases are younger than 40 years with a median age of 31 years, a population born only after discontinuation of the smallpox vaccination campaign, and thus may reflect a lack of cross-protective immunity.
Introduction
Public health importance

Cross-Immunity and Protection
Epidemiology
Discovery and Animal Reservoirs
Transmission of Monkeypox Virus to Humans
Geographic Endemicity and Increase in Number of Cases
Monkeypox Cases in the United States
Monkeypox Cases in the United Kingdom and Israel
Public Health England. Cases of monkeypox confirmed in England. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/monkeypox-case-in-england. Accessed March 28, 2019.
- Vaughan A.
- Aarons E.
- Astbury J.
- et al.
- Vaughan A.
- Aarons E.
- Astbury J.
- et al.
Ongoing Monkeypox Outbreak in West Africa
Modes of transmission of monkeypox virus to humans
Clinical features




Smallpox vaccination, monkeypox prevalence, and changing clinical presentations
Diagnosis: laboratory, virologic, and histologic features
Treatment
Prevention
Vaccines against monkeypox
Can the Smallpox Vaccine Available Be Used to Protect Against Monkeypox?
- Neff J.
- Modlin J.
- Birkhead G.S.
- et al.
Monitoring the safety of a smallpox vaccination program in the United States: report of the joint Smallpox Vaccine Safety Working Group of the advisory committee on immunization practices and the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board.
Addressing gaps in knowledge and strengthening public health preparedness
Summary
Acknowledgments
References
- Human monkeypox.2019 (Available at:) (Accessed February 22, 2019)
- Smallpox.2019 (Available at:) (Accessed February 20, 2019)
- Monkeypox.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018; 67: 306-310
- Human monkeypox and smallpox viruses: genomic comparison.FEBS Lett. 2001; 509: 66-70
- Orthopox viruses: infections in humans.Transfus Med Hemother. 2010; 37: 351-364
- Zoonotic cases of camelpox infection in India.Vet Microbiol. 2011; 152: 29-38
- Chapter 47. Cutaneous viral diseases. Monkeypox.in: Cook G.C. Zumla A. Manson’s tropical diseases. 22nd edition. Harcourt Brace Saunders, Publishing Group, London2009: 839-840
- Monkeypox—Enhancing public health preparedness for an emerging lethal human zoonotic epidemic threat in the wake of the smallpox post-eradication era.Int J Infect Dis. 2019; 78: 78-84
- Smallpox and its eradication.World Health Organisation, Geneva (Switzerland)1988
- Buffalopox: an emerging and re-emerging zoonosis.Anim Health Res Rev. 2007; 8: 105-114
- Vaccinia virus natural infections in Brazil: the good, the bad, and the ugly.Viruses. 2017; 9 ([pii:E340])
- The evolutionary biology of poxviruses.Infect Genet Evol. 2010; 10: 50-59
- Epitope mosaic on the surface proteins of orthopoxviruses.Virology. 1988; 163: 133-144
- Immunopathogenesis of poxvirus infections: forecasting the impending storm.Immunol Cell Biol. 2007; 85: 93-102
- Protection of rhesus monkeys against monkeypox by vaccinia virus immunization.Am J Vet Res. 1964; 25: 192-195
- Multiple diagnostic techniques identify previously vaccinated individuals with protective immunity against monkeypox.Nat Med. 2005; 11: 1005-1011
- Smallpox vaccines: targets of protective immunity.Immunol Rev. 2011; 239: 8-26
- Histopathological and virological studies on monkeypox.Arch Gesamte Virusforsch. 1967; 21: 205-216
- Monkeypox: experimental infection in chimpanzee (Pan satyrus) and immunization with vaccinia virus.Am J Vet Res. 1968; 29: 1675-1680
- A pox-like disease in cynomolgus monkeys.Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand. 1959; 46: 156-176
- Assessing monkeypox virus prevalence in small mammals at the human-animal interface in the democratic Republic of the Congo.Viruses. 2017; 9 ([pii:E283])
- Fatal monkeypox in wild-living sooty mangabey, Côte d'Ivoire, 2012.Emerg Infect Dis. 2014; 20: 1009-1011
- Monkeypox zoonotic associations: insights from laboratory evaluation of animals associated with the multi-state US outbreak.Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2007; 76: 757-768
- Pathogen-host associations and predicted range shifts of human monkeypox in response to climate change in central Africa.PLoS One. 2013; 8: e66071
- A pox disease of monkeys.Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1960; 85: 951-959
- Monkeypox I. Clinical, virologic and immunologic studies.Am J Epidemiol. 1968; 87: 551-566
- A nosocomial outbreak of human monkeypox in the Central African Republic.Open Forum Infect Dis. 2017; 4: ofx168
- Emergence of monkeypox—West and Central Africa, 1970-2017.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018; 67: 306-310
- Emergence of monkeypox as the most important orthopoxvirus infection in humans.Front Public Health. 2018; 6: 241
- Presumptive risk factors for monkeypox in rural communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.PLoS One. 2017; 12: e0168664
- Isolation and properties of the causal agent of a new variola-like disease (monkeypox) in man.Bull World Health Organ. 1972; 46: 599-611
- The transmission potential of monkeypox virus in human populations.Int J Epidemiol. 1988; 17: 643-650
- Reemergence of monkeypox in Africa: a review of the past six years.Br Med Bull. 1998; 54: 693-702
- Human monkeypox, 1970-79.Bull World Health Organ. 1980; 58: 165-182
- 1980 the global eradication of smallpox: final report of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication.World Health Organization, Geneva (Switzerland)1980
- Human monkeypox (MPX).2018 (Available at:) (Accessed February 22, 2019)
- Outbreak of human monkeypox, Democratic Republic of Congo, 1996 to 1997.Emerg Infect Dis. 2001; 7: 434
- Extended interhuman transmission of monkeypox in a hospital community in the Republic of the Congo, 2003.Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2005; 73: 428-434
- Detection of human monkeypox in the Republic of the Congo following intensive community education.Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2013; 88: 982-985
- Monkey pox virus infection in humans in the Central African Republic.Bull Soc Pathol Exot Filiales. 1985; 78: 311-320
- Endemic human monkeypox, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2001-2004.Emerg Infect Dis. 2007; 13: 934-937
- Major increase in human monkeypox incidence 30 years after smallpox vaccination campaigns cease in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010; 107: 16262-16267
- Emerging diseases—the monkeypox epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Clin Microbiol Infect. 2016; 22: 658-659
- Evolution of a disease surveillance system: an increase in reporting of human monkeypox disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2001-2013.Int J Trop Dis Health. 2017; 25 ([pii:IJTDH.35885])
- Reemergence of human Monkeypox in Nigeria, 2017.Emerg Infect Dis. 2018; 24: 1149-1151
- Human monkeypox. Monographs in virology. vol. 17. Karger, Basel (Switzerland)1988: 49 (Tabel 7)
- Human monkeypox outbreak cause by novel virus belonging to Congo Basin clade, Sudan, 2005.Emerg Infect Dis. 2010; 16: 1539-1545
- Update: multistate outbreak of monkeypox–Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, 2003.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2003; 52: 642-646
- Update: multistate outbreak of monkeypox–Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, 2003.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2003; 52: 589-590
- Monkeypox in the United States. 2003 Outbreak.(Available at:) (Accessed February 22, 2019)
Public Health England. Cases of monkeypox confirmed in England. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/monkeypox-case-in-england. Accessed March 28, 2019.
- Two cases of monkeypox imported to the United Kingdom, September 2018.Euro Surveill. 2018; 23https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917
- Four generations of probable person-to-person transmission of human monkeypox.Am J Epidemiol. 1986; 123: 1004-1012
- Investigation of an outbreak of monkeypox in an area occupied by armed groups, Central African Republic.Med Mal Infect. 2018; 48: 263-268
- Monkeypox patient diagnosed.(Available at:) (Accessed February 19, 2019)
- Human monkeypox in Nigeria.2018 (Available at:) (Accessed February 22, 2019)
- Notes from the field: responding to an outbreak of monkeypox using the one health approach—Nigeria, 2017-2018.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018; 67: 1040-1041
- An update of monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria.2018 (Available at:) (Accessed February 22, 2019)
- Monkeypox.2019 (Available at:) (Accessed February 22, 2019)
- Genomic characterisation of human monkeypox virus in Nigeria.Lancet Infect Dis. 2018; 18: 246
- Human monkeypox: secondary attack rates.Bull World Health Organ. 1988; 66: 465-470
- Stochastic model for interhuman spread of monkeypox.Am J Epidemiol. 1987; 126: 1082-1092
- Human monkeypox: clinical features of 282 patients.J Infect Dis. 1987; 156: 293-298
- Extended human-to-human transmission during a monkeypox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Emerg Infect Dis. 2016; 22: 1014-1021
- Human monkeypox: confusion with chickenpox.Acta Trop. 1988; 45: 297-307
- Human monkeypox: an emerging zoonosis.Lancet. 2004; 4: 15-25
- Smallpox vaccine safety is dependent on T cells and not B cells.J Infect Dis. 2011; 203: 1043-1053
- Clinical characteristics of human monkeypox, and risk factors for severe disease.Clin Infect Dis. 2005; 41: 1742-1751
- Status of human monkeypox: clinical disease, epidemiology and research.Vaccine. 2011; 29: D54-D59
- Human monkeypox.Clin Infect Dis. 2014; 58: 260-267
- Enhancing case definitions for surveillance of human monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo.PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2017; 11: e0005857
- The current status of human monkeypox: memorandum from a WHO Meeting.Bull World Health Organ. 1984; 62: 703-713
- Profiling the humoral immune response to infection by using proteome microarrays: high-throughput vaccine and diagnostic antigen discovery.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005; 102: 547-552
- Proteome-wide analysis of the serological response to vaccinia and smallpox.Proteomics. 2007; 7: 1678-1686
- Analysis of variola and vaccinia virus neutralization assays for smallpox vaccines.Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2012; 19: 1116-1118
- Safety and immunogenicity of LC16m8, an attenuated smallpox vaccine in vaccinia-naive adults.J Infect Dis. 2011; 204: 1395-1402
- Cross-neutralizing and protective human antibody specificities to poxvirus infections.Cell. 2016; 167: 684-694
- Estimating the size of the U.S. population at risk of severe adverse events from replicating smallpox vaccine.Public Health Nurs. 2017; 34: 200-209
- Complications of smallpox vaccination, 1968.N Engl J Med. 1969; 281: 1201-1208
- Incidence and follow-up of inflammatory cardiac complications after smallpox vaccination.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2004; 44: 201-205
- Monitoring the safety of a smallpox vaccination program in the United States: report of the joint Smallpox Vaccine Safety Working Group of the advisory committee on immunization practices and the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board.Clin Infect Dis. 2008; 46: 258-270
- Frequency of adverse events after vaccination with different vaccinia strains.PLoS Med. 2006; 3: e272
- Enhancing health care worker ability to detect and care for patients with monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Int Health. 2013; 5: 237-243
- Taking forward a 'One Health' approach for turning the tide against the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and other zoonotic pathogens with epidemic potential.Int J Infect Dis. 2016; 47: 5-9
- Strengthening of surveillance during monkeypox outbreak, Republic of the Congo, 2017.Emerg Infect Dis. 2018; 24: 1158-1160
Article info
Publication history
Footnotes
All authors contributed equally.
A. Zumla, D. Asogun, and C. Ihekweazu are members of the PANDORA-ID-NET Consortium. PANDORA-ID-NET (EDCTP Reg/Grant RIA2016E-1609) is funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP2) programme, which is supported under Horizon 2020, the European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. A. Zumla is in receipt of a National Institutes of Health Research senior investigator award.
Conflicts of Interest: All authors have an interest in global public health and emerging and re-emerging infections. All authors have no other conflict of interest to declare.