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Earlier this month, the Washington Post ran a big, feature about a seemingly scary disease, called monkeypox.
?It kills up to 1 in 10 of its victims, similar to pneumonic plague, and is particularly dangerous in children,? the story observes at the beginning.
Plus, the virus appears to be on rise.
?Since 1970, 10 countries in Africa have had at least one recorded human case of monkeypox,? the story says. A map shows the disease popping up across countries in West and Central Africa, including the Congo Republic, where the story takes place. The country is fighting an outbreak with 88 cases and six deaths, the World Health Organization says.
The story chronicles a thrilling hunt to find the source of monkeypox: Is it a giant pouched rat? An African brush-tailed porcupine?
And it put monkeypox at the forefront of national media. Even Fox News picked up on the idea and ran a segment entitled: ?Monkeypox & Black Death Plague Resurface,? read a headline for a Tucker Carlson segment. ?It could reach this country before we know it?s coming,? Carlson said.
There?s no question monkeypox can be a serious disease. It causes a fever, and a rash, which can turn into painful, fluid-filled blisters on the face, hands and feet.
But here at Goats and Soda, we wanted to know more. Where on Earth does this virus come from? And how dangerous is it compared to other threats, like Ebola or H7N9 bird flu?
To get the lowdown, we talked to two monkeypox experts: Anne Rimoin at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo for 15 years; and Jay Hooper at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, who is working to develop a better monkeypox vaccine.
Here are some of the questions we asked and some of their surprising answers.
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?It kills up to 1 in 10 of its victims, similar to pneumonic plague, and is particularly dangerous in children,? the story observes at the beginning.
Plus, the virus appears to be on rise.
?Since 1970, 10 countries in Africa have had at least one recorded human case of monkeypox,? the story says. A map shows the disease popping up across countries in West and Central Africa, including the Congo Republic, where the story takes place. The country is fighting an outbreak with 88 cases and six deaths, the World Health Organization says.
The story chronicles a thrilling hunt to find the source of monkeypox: Is it a giant pouched rat? An African brush-tailed porcupine?
And it put monkeypox at the forefront of national media. Even Fox News picked up on the idea and ran a segment entitled: ?Monkeypox & Black Death Plague Resurface,? read a headline for a Tucker Carlson segment. ?It could reach this country before we know it?s coming,? Carlson said.
There?s no question monkeypox can be a serious disease. It causes a fever, and a rash, which can turn into painful, fluid-filled blisters on the face, hands and feet.
But here at Goats and Soda, we wanted to know more. Where on Earth does this virus come from? And how dangerous is it compared to other threats, like Ebola or H7N9 bird flu?
To get the lowdown, we talked to two monkeypox experts: Anne Rimoin at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo for 15 years; and Jay Hooper at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, who is working to develop a better monkeypox vaccine.
Here are some of the questions we asked and some of their surprising answers.
...
