Are There Certain Groups That Are More Vulnerable Than Others?

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Some high risk contacts are being offered the smallpox vaccine to boost their immunity and prevent any severe infections. Pregnancy, of course, is one of the strains on the women also. And so when they have that, there is also the danger that i becomes systemic. Also, monkey boxes endemic in parts of central and west africa, such as nigeria.

The sudden surge of monkeypox cases outside Africa has alarmed public health authorities around the world. In Europe and North America it’s the first time community transmission has been recorded among people with no links to west or central Africa. So what is happening? Ian Sample talks to virologist Oyewale Tomori about why monkeypox is flaring up, whether we should fear it, and what we can learn from countries such as Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have been tackling this virus for decades. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod