Monkey Pox Virus! Another Pandemic??? How Dangerous Is It?

What is monkeypox and how do you catch it?
Cases of monkeypox - a rare, little-known disease - are being investigated in European countries including the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.
On Friday the UK confirmed the number of cases had more than doubled, bringing the total to 20.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said 11 new cases had been confirmed and most cases were mild.
The UK government has bought stocks of smallpox vaccine to guard against monkeypox.
How common is monkeypox?
Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe and experts say chances of infection are low.
It occurs mostly in remote parts of central and west African countries, near tropical rainforests.
There are two main strains of virus - west African and central African.
Two of the infected patients in the UK travelled from Nigeria, so it is likely that they are suffering from the West African strain, which is generally mild.
Another case was a healthcare worker who picked up the virus from one of the patients.
More recent cases do not have any known links with each other, or any history of travel. It appears they caught it in the UK from spread in the community.