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There is a rare disease called monkey pox.
Infection can cause fever, blisters, or even death in severe cases.
However, this disease, which has mainly spread in Africa, has recently been found unprecedentedly in Europe, followed by the United States.
Correspondent Ahn Sang-woo.
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The UK was the first to confirm monkeypox infection in Europe.
The first patient, who came out on the 7th, is believed to have been infected after having recently traveled to Nigeria.
Since then, a total of 20 people have been infected with monkey pox in the UK alone, and as it rapidly spread to the United States and Canada as well as other European countries such as Spain and Portugal, the number of infected patients now exceeds 100.
[Stephane de Keirsmarker / EU Commission Spokesperson: We are all very closely monitoring the onset and spread of monkey pox.]
Monkey pox initially shows symptoms such as fever and headache, and then blisters and scabs form on the skin. occurs in
The fatality rate, which progresses to severe and even death, can reach up to 10%, depending on the strain.
The first person was infected in Congo in 1970, and since then, cases of infection have been continuously reported in Africa.
[Daniel Bausch / Senior Researcher, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene: What is unusual is that people who have never traveled to Africa and have never had contact with animals brought from Africa are infected.]
However, monkey pox is transmitted through respiratory It is known to spread, but it is analyzed that the contagiousness is low.
[Amesh Adalza/Professor, Johns Hopkins University Health and Security Center: It is dangerous to look at monkey pox like the coronavirus.
The two must be dealt with separately.]
In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the smallpox vaccine can prevent up to 85% of monkeypox infections.
(Video editing: Yoon Tae-ho)