Is the virus that causes monkeypox related to the ones that cause smallpox

[question everything]

or chickenpox and shingles?

[hlthe2b]

1. Related to smallpox and thus the vaccine that will be used in exposed individuals is smallpox vaxx

However, monkeypox is far less severe than smallpox. There was an outbreak in 2003 linked to the transport of prairie dogs as pets who had been in contact during transport with imported (and unknowingly infected)rodents and other species from Africa (Gambian rats), resulting in more than 40 human cases. All recovered.

Health Care providers/workers and public health workers active in 2003 should have been boosted with smallpox (along with the military) if they were eligible (i.e., those with eczema and some other immune conditions could not receive it). So, there are still quite a few HCWs that are up to 85% immune, should cases present to the ER in many locales

[hlthe2b]

2. Chickenpox i(shingles) is caused by Varicella virus, a herpesvirus--NOT related to Orthopoxviruses

which includes smallpox and monkeypox (and cowpox). The later genera is distinctly different, but those latter three viruses are related).

[likesmountains 52]

3. I learned yesterday that the smallpox virus is the only virus that has only human hosts.

That is why it was able to be eradicated. There were no animal hosts to worry about.

[hlthe2b]

4. No naturally occuring animal reservoir exists, though some species of monkeys and

other primates are susceptible to smallpox, albeit lab-challenge does not typically cause the same spectrum of illness in these non-human primates (NHP) as in man. These NHP models were continually tested against anti-viral drugs, especially after bioterrorism fears peaked after 911. Prairie dogs and other non-primates are likewise susceptible to smallpox (and of course, monkeypox), but are difficult to study in lab conditions and considered unsuitable for strict biocontainment protocols.

So, the issue is no naturally-occurring non-human animal host for smallpox, making eradication possible. By contrast, monkeypox has a lot of naturally occurring animal hosts.

Smallpox is not the ONLY virus with only human hosts in nature. Measles, though unrelated to smallpox and other (Orthopox), likewise is on the possible list for eradication or at least elimination (current status in the Americas) because it has no naturally-occurring non-human hosts in animal populations.

[likesmountains 52]

5. I watched a CME yesterday and that was the first time I'd ever heard that.

I guess it was skipped over since smallpox wasn't "a thing" anymore. Fascinating though, with all of the viruses in the world.