Health officials Saturday night trying to avert an outbreak of a potentially deadly African virus related to smallpox after the first person ever was diagnosed with monkeypox in the UK.
They said a Nigerian individual who flew into the UK last Sunday has been diagnosed with the bug, which kills up to one in ten of those infected. There is no vaccine.
Like Ebola, monkeypox resides in wild animals but humans can catch it through direct contact with animals, such as handling monkeys, or eating inadequately cooked meat.
It can pass from human- to-human via droplets in the air, and by touching the skin of an infected individual, or touching objects contaminated by them. Read more