On June 11, 2003, Tommy G. Thompson, serving as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, issued an immediate ban on the importation of prairie dogs along with six species of African rodents. The subsequent day, the Wisconsin Department of Health implemented an emergency order that prohibited the import, sale, and release of prairie…
As the world marks five years since the onset of COVID-19, China is again in the spotlight of global health concerns due to an outbreak of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) reported in multiple regions. According to news reports and social media posts, China is seeing a fresh outbreak of a little-known virus known as human metapneumovirus…
Monkeys shipped to Denmark from Singapore were first reported for the monkeypox virus in 1958. Further outbreaks in captive monkeys were documented in the Netherlands, the USA, and France over the next ten years. Many affected animals died during these outbreaks; however, no human case was reported, suggesting that humans are insusceptible to this virus. In…
Monkeypox is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus in the Poxviridae family; it is a DNA virus similar to the smallpox virus. The incubation period in humans typically lasts 7 to 14 days, but it can range from 4 to 21 days. Depending on the…
What is Monkeypox virus? After the severe zoonotic pandemic caused by COVID-19, the world is facing another threat today. Monkeypox virus member of the family Poxviridae, subfamily Chordopoxvirinae, and genus Orthopoxvirus is appearing as a pandemic to the human population. Some of the common viruses’ variola, cowpox, camelpox, and vaccinia viruses share the genus Orthopoxvirus…
