A New Terror: MonkeyPox

By: Derick Zhang

As most know, there is now a MonkeyPox outbreak and that recently the World Health Organization has declared a global emergency. To get ready for this new disease there’s probably quite a few questions you might want to ask. For those of you who don’t know what MonkeyPox is, it’s a virus originating in Sudan, a country in Northern Africa. We’ve faced MonkeyPox before in 2011 and have a vaccine for it, but since many countries do not have access to these vaccines and good sanitation, they spread quickly through these developing countries, and it has spread through international travel.

Another important thing is to know if you have MonkeyPox or not, the symptoms of MonkeyPox include fever, headache, muscle aches and backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion, sore throat, nasal congestion and cough. On top of this mountain of symptoms, it takes very long to recover. It usually takes around 2-4 weeks to recover. Though there are some cons, there are also pros. One pro is the way it’s transmitted is through skin confrontation, so if you have MonkeyPox and as long as you don’t touch anyone. You can’t spread it. Plus, there’s a very low chance of this disease to be fatal.

Luckily, the CDC is saying there probably isn’t going to be a huge epidemic lock-down like the one we had with Covid-19, but they are still on the lookout right now. But even though it might not hurt you physically, it may hurt people mentally. Many people are stereotyping that this is a gay virus because Homosexuals have a higher chance of getting the virus and this stereotype could crumble a community that has endured so much already. This could end the world for all, some or none. It depends on what we do.