Cases of monkeypox, a disease caused by a DNA virus closely related to smallpox and cowpox, have increased dramatically in rural villages in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to researchers working in the war-ravaged African country.
Reporting their results online at PNAS, an international team of scientists found that within one area the average annual incidence of monkeypox between November 2006 and November 2007 increased by about 20 times compared to the average annual incidence recorded in the 5 years between 1981 and 1986, the last time scientists actively monitored the study population. Though monkeypox is seldom fatal, the alarming increase in the DRC, where monitoring is sporadic at best, means that the disease has the potential to emerge as one that is more deadly and spreads faster, according to Anne Rimoin, the University of California, Los Angeles, epidemiologist who led the research team. "Each ...
