With the number of confirmed cases of monkey pox in many parts of the world, it is predicted that the risk of infection under the age of 50 may be relatively high if it is introduced into Korea.
This is because they are a generation who has never had smallpox, similar to monkey pox, nor has received the smallpox vaccine.
When infected with monkeypox, symptoms similar to those of common smallpox appear, and it is known that 85% of the preventive effect can be expected with the smallpox vaccine.
However, since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to smallpox in 1980, there has been no vaccination.
In Korea, smallpox vaccination was administered until 1978.
Those under the age of 44 have never been vaccinated.
Experts thought that monkey smallpox is unlikely to lead to a large-scale epidemic as it is not airborne like Corona 19, but they are saying that caution is necessary because most people under the age of 50 do not seem to have immunity.