Australia has so far detected two cases of the monkeypox virus.
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NSW was the first to record a returned traveller with the virus, while Victoria recorded a case on Friday evening.
It's understood the cases are experiencing mild symptoms and have been isolated along with their household contact.
The rare tropical virus is spreading across the world, and has so far made the biggest splash in the United Kingdom.
But the virus is not in itself new, so where did it come from, and should we be concerned about it's spread?
Professor David Tscharke is the head of the Australian National University's division of immunlogy and infectious diseases, based at the John Curtin School of Medical Research.
He spoke with ACM this week to explain the origin and concerns around this virus.
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Where did monkeypox come from?
The virus is common in species of monkeys and among rodents found mostly on the African continent.
"It's called monkeypox because it was first detected as an infection in monkeys, and that was back in the 1950s," Professor Tscharke said.
"The disease that we're talking about today is probably better referred to as human monkeypox infection."
It's been detected in humans since the 1970s, so it's not a particularly new virus in human populations.
The virus is endemic to parts of Africa, and particularly among a variety of animal groups in the Central African Congo Basin and in West Africa.
Genomic testing of the cases that have been so far detected suggest that the strain that's spreading is the one that is often found in West Africa.
And this is good news, according to Professor Tscharke, because it is less severe than the one that is known to be in the Congo Basin.
The West African strain has a low fatality rate, people get sick but they recover.
But, Professor Cassandra Berry from Murdoch University in Perth warns, just because it is known to be less fatal does not mean that it never causes death.
"[It] should still be taken seriously as it can be fatal," Professor Berry said.
The Central African strain can kill up to 10 per cent of those infected. So thankfully, it's the milder strain that is popping up in new places.
For many years the virus has spread, causing periodic local outbreaks.
"Outside Africa, there's been some outbreaks of monkeypox in other places," Professor Tsharke said.
In the early 2000, a pet importer in the United States unfortunately caused an outbreak after bringing infected animals back from Africa.
Those animals spread the infection to a group of prairie dogs that were then sold and spread the virus to their new households.
"The happy new owners of the prairie dogs, unfortunately, some of them were infected with monkeypox," Professor Tsharke said.
"That virus didn't spread far beyond the families that initially bought the prairie dogs, but it did cause concern."
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Outbreaks have also been known to happen in parts of Europe from time to time. But what's different about this current situation is that it seems to be spreading to more countries.
"Typically [in the past] it's just been one or two cases, and it hasn't seemed to spread much further than that," Proffessor Tsharke said.
" I think what's notable about about the outbreak now is that there is quite a lot of people involved. There's a growing number of people involved. It's clearly in many, many countries."
Why is the virus spreading now?
The answer to that is a little bit unknown, but could come down to a few different factors.
World travel has returned and so viruses are beginning to circulate the population more freely than during the past two years of pandemic.
Because there has been so little interaction over the past couple of years, immunity to all sorts of viruses is also a little lower than would normally be the case. So the population is just generally more susceptible to every virus.
"There's a couple of possibilities. One is just basically chance, that the virus got to the right events where it was able to spread to a lot of people and those people happen to be connected to lots of other people," Professor Tsharke said.
"So the virus got lucky, if you like, and got access to a large number of number of people at the same time.
"Another possibility is that there is something a little bit different about this particular strain of the virus that's going around at the moment.
"And that means that it's spreading more efficiently from person to person. That's probably one of the more worrying scenarios."
Is monkeypox anything like chickenpox?
The virus exists in a family of other 'pox' viruses, including the much more severe 'smallpox', which has been officially eradicated since the 1950s.
Monkeypox and smallpox have enough similarities that the vaccine that was used to eradicate smallpox is also very effective on monkeypox.
That vaccination hasactually managed to suppress many of the pox viruses, including cowpox too.
While the virus shares a lot of characteristics with smallpox, it does not at all act like the very well-known chickenpox virus.
In fact, as Professor Tscharke explains, the 'chickenpox' name is more of a misnomer.
"So chickenpox sounds like it might be like monkeypox or smallpox, but actually it's completely unrelated," Professor Tscharke said.
"The chickenpox virus is from the same family as the virus that causes cold sores and genital herpes. So they're [monkeypox and chickenpox] very, very different types of virus.
Unfortunately, if you have had chickenpox as a child or if you've been vaccinated against it, you will not have any additional immunity to this monkeypox virus.
"It means absolutely nothing. So the way that chickenpox virus works is completely different," Professor Tscharke said.
"So chickenpox is associated with shingles, it's completely different from this other family of viruses, including monkeypox".
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What are the symptoms of monkeypox?
This virus has a long incubation period, so it could be several weeks before symptoms are noticeable. But once symptoms have come on, it comes on strong.
Fever, bodyache, headache and swollen lymph nodes are typically the first symptoms.
It's then followed by the characteristic lesions on the skin, from where it gets its 'pox' suffix.
"The whole infection can sometimes last know three maybe even four weeks," Professor Tscharke said.
The virus is identified via a PCR test on the skin lesions and then treated with antiviral medications.
Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake from the Australian National University explained that in severe cases, the rash "can lead to permanent disfigurement".
"Pneumonia, diarrhoea and eye involvement can occur [but] the death rate is low," Proffessor Senanayake said.
How does the virus spread?
The virus is spread through very close contact.
"Monkeypox can spread from the rash or the blisters that appear on the skin, but it can also spread through contaminated clothing or bedding and it can also spread through potentially saliva that has been infected with the virus because there can be sores inside of the mouth," said Dr Catherine Smallwood from the World Health Organisation.
The virus is generally spread through contact with the erupting lesions or through incredibly close contact with body fluids.
"There's been some discussion about whether this virus is somewhat sexually transmitted and it's not really a sexually transmitted infection in the way that we we think about those," Professor Tsharke said.
"But the bottom line is that when you're involved in doing those sorts of things, that's a lot of very, very close contact, usually over an extended period of time.
"So any virus that can spread well in close contact situations is going to be transmitted in that way as well."
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Although there is a chance that the virus can be spread through the respiratory response, this is very, very rare as Associate Professor John Blakey from the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Curtin University explains.
"If you've heard that monkeypox is often spread by breathing in infected droplets, like influenza or COVID-19, this seems like another bad news story for people with existing lung diseases like asthma and COPD," Professor Blakey said.
"However, it appears less easily transmitted than those viruses, and the simple measures you are familiar with like hand washing, mask wearing, and self-isolating if exposed are all protective.
"Respiratory problems are also very uncommon with monkeypox, and tend to be due to infections with other organisms taking advantage of someone's weakened immune system.
"With that in mind, ensure you and your lungs are in the best possible shape by avoiding cigarette smoke, taking regular preventer therapy, ensuring you exercise and eat healthily. That way you are likely to be one of the many people for whom viral infections are an inconvenience, not a serious illness."
Will monkeypox become another pandemic?
At the moment, the spread of monkeypox does not look to be too concerning. Because it requires very close contact, and because the domestic cases have been identified, it's unlikely that a localised outbreak will happen.
"I think it is reasonable that people are a bit unnerved having had two years [of COVID] and then we've seen a new virus pop up," said Dr Michael Head from the University of Southampton in England.
"it is important to stress that monkeypox and the novel coronavirus all two very different viruses and they do behave in different ways.
"So whilst we will probably see more cases, it's unlikely at this point in time to point towards anything like, for example, a global pandemic."
Should the virus concern the world?
The monkeypox virus has about six times the complexity of the SARS-CoV2 virus, which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has so far said that the monkeypox virus is containable.
It does not spread as quickly as COVID-19 did, and so as long as it is monitored, it can be controlled.
"I don't think we need to be alarmed about this outbreak with over 100 cases now outside Western and Central Africa," said Professor Cassandra Berry from the Murdoch University in Perth.
"We only have two cases in Australia and the infection is easily identified and controlled by antivirals and therapeutic vaccination similar to those used for smallpox in the past.
Even though the virus is spreading a lot faster in the UK, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told the world it is not a huge concern yet.
"I think that as things stand, the judgment is that it's it's rare," Mr Johnson said in a press conference on the 23 May, 2022.
"I think we're looking very carefully at the circumstances of transmission. It hasn't yet proved fatal in any case that we know of, certainly not in this in this country [the UK]."