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Global Update

Africa: Monkeypox Cases Surge in Rural Areas as Price of the Victory Over Smallpox

Credit...Jerome Delay/Associated Press

The world’s victory over smallpox has had an unfortunate consequence: monkeypox cases are surging in tropical Africa.

The disease is related to smallpox, though usually less serious, although in rare cases, it too can kill, blind or scar victims. Also, it is much less likely to jump between people, though new evidence from Africa suggests human-to-human transmission is more common than was previously thought.

In a study published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, the Kinshasa School of Public Health and elsewhere, who surveyed nine rural Congo health districts, concluded that monkeypox was 20 times as common there as it was 30 years ago, when smallpox vaccination was discontinued.

The typical victim was a boy aged 10 to 14; boys in villages hunt monkeys and rodents, many of which can carry the pox.

Smallpox vaccine is 80 percent effective at preventing monkeypox, so in the 1970s, health authorities debated continuing to use it in some jungle areas. But the vaccine has its own risks, so they did not.

In 2003, more than 90 Americans caught monkeypox from pet prairie dogs, who got it from Gambian pouched rats imported by a pet store. No one died, but the government banned imports of African rodents.

“Our study is a great warning bell that we will see more pox viruses emerging in humans,” said Anne W. Rimoin, the study’s lead author.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section D, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: AFRICA: Monkeypox Cases Surge in Rural Areas As Price of the Victory Over Smallpox. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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