The virus occasionally spills over into humans, and such infections have become more common in recent decades. Endemic to western and central Africa, it was first discovered in laboratory monkeys in 1958-hence the name-but the wild animals that harbor the virus are probably rodents. The virus behind monkeypox is a close relative of the one that caused smallpox but is less deadly and less transmissible, causing symptoms that include fever and a rash. Ten minutes later, she stopped mid-sentence to say that a colleague had just texted her a press release: “ Massachusetts Public Health Officials Confirm Case of Monkeypox.”
“If we see those clusters, given the amount of travel between the United States and Europe, I wouldn’t be surprised to see cases here,” Rimoin, who studies the disease, told me. Yesterday afternoon, I called the UCLA epidemiologist Anne Rimoin to ask about the European outbreak of monkeypox-a rare but potentially severe viral illness with dozens of confirmed or suspected cases in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal.
