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From the Washington Post

At least 19 people in three Midwestern states have contracted a disease related to smallpox, marking the first outbreak of the life-threatening illness in the United States, federal heath officials said yesterday....

The disease, known as monkeypox, usually only occurs in central and western Africa. It is caused by a virus known as an orthopox virus, which is the family of viruses that includes the smallpox virus, one of the most dangerous diseases known to man and a feared biological weapon....

While much about the monkeypox virus is unclear, it does not seem to be as deadly as smallpox. Authorities estimate that monkeypox has a mortality rate of between 1 percent and 10 percent, compared with a mortality rate of about 30 percent for smallpox.

The monkeypox virus is believed to spread through physical contact with a sick person or infected animal, or through infected body fluids, although health officials said it apparently is not as easily spread as smallpox, which is highly infectious.

- jim 6-08-2003 10:32 pm [link] [1 comment]