# We've got Monkeypox! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 9, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552 "2003-06-09T00:35:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/1 "2003-06-09T00:35:14Z")
It’s official. The United States has [Monkeypox!](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/national/08CND-POX.html) I hereby nominate Monkeypox as the funniest disease name ever. I demand that we make it a matter of national policy to immediate contract lemurpox and orangapox. Not to mention chimpanpox and platipox. ---
**Author:** ![i\_like\_bacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@i\_like\_bacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/i_like_bacon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/2 "2003-06-09T00:36:41Z")
squirrelpox? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/3 "2003-06-09T00:38:47Z")
Drat. Anyone with a NYT account wanna sum up the article? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/4 "2003-06-09T00:42:26Z")
Sure thing. > [@](#): > > Monkeypox, a viral disease related to smallpox but less infectious and deadly, has been detected for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. Three Midwestern states, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, reported at least 19 monkeypox cases over the weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. > … > Wisconsin health officials said patients there typically fell ill with signs and symptoms like fever, headaches, nonproductive cough, swollen lymph nodes, chills and drenching sweats. From 1 to 10 days later, the patients developed a rash consisting of blister-like pimples that filled with pus and broke open, finally producing a crust. The rash occurred over the head, trunk and arms and legs, often appearing in different stages or crops. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/5 "2003-06-09T11:57:59Z")
Huh. Wonder what a nonproductive cough is. I guess that means one that doesn’t produce phlegm? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/6 "2003-06-09T12:47:05Z")
A non-productive cough is one that takes regular union breaks and then does not return for at least twenty minutes to an hour after the original return. Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/7 "2003-06-09T12:57:05Z")
I’m not positive, but I’m guessing someone who gets and resolves monkeypox is then immune to smallpox. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/8 "2003-06-09T13:03:21Z")
I am deeply offended at how the members of the SDMB are making light of this situation. Monkey pox is a serious problem to all us monkey creatures, myself included. I would appreciate a bit more sensitivity to the plight from my fellow simians. good day ::swings away in righteous indignation:: ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/9 "2003-06-09T13:13:22Z")
The local NBC station interviewed a recovered worker at the shop where the outbreak started; he characterized it as being (for him at least) much less severe than chicken pox, and amounted to 3 days of fairly mild flu-like symptoms along with the pox. They also noted that the shop owner is cooperating fully in providing info on who bought the infected prairie dogs or Gambian rats (as they’re not sure which species had it initially). The problem with the disease is that this is apparently its first appearance in the western hemisphere, and there are concerns about what might happen if it spreads into the population - worries about mutation, and so forth, I gather. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/10 "2003-06-09T13:23:44Z")
Unlike Smallpox, Monkey pox dies out in humans before spreading too far. Smallpox will carry on generation after generation, retaining its virulence. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/11 "2003-06-09T13:53:35Z")
Disease of the Month Club: Monkeypox. Let’s see if we can come up with ten more diseases to scare the bejeebus out of every one. Right now, I would like to trot out what can be known as \*The Summer Collection \*: May: Sars June: Monkey Pox July: West Nile Virus August: Lyme Disease ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/12 "2003-06-09T14:05:44Z")
In truth poxes are quite widespread in the Animal Kingdom. Ya got your Monkey Pox, yer Penguin Pox, yer Catapillar Pox, Cow Pox and even Fish Poxes of a number of flavors. Reference a half-remembered copy of Preston’s “The Demon in the Freezer.” ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/13 "2003-06-09T14:13:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Paul in Saudi \* > \*\*In truth poxes are quite widespread in the Animal Kingdom. > \*\* **Truth poxes?!** Yow! Now, there’s a frightening concept. It could spell the end of society as we know it.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/14 "2003-06-09T14:19:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Huh. Wonder what a nonproductive cough is. I guess that means one that doesn’t produce phlegm? \*\* Got it on the first guess. A nonproductive cough doesn’t bring anything up. A productive cough comes with a prize. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/15 "2003-06-09T14:21:02Z")
Hey! Anyone wanna trade infectious diseases? We’ll see your Monkeypox and raise you a SARS and a Mad Cow. Still waiting to see who gets dealt the West Nile Virus, but considering the legendarily-voracious insect life of our northern forsts, I haven’t much hope… ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/16 "2003-06-09T14:29:31Z")
Gee, I was little surprised to see that someone had been trading prairie dogs as pets. My family is from the American Southwest and we were always told to stay the hell away from prairie dogs and their burrows as the _bubonic plague_ is a risk. (One of the last plague deaths I remember reading about was a researcher who had been doing prairie dog studies in NM.) They are damn cute little critters though. What the heck is a Gambian rat? (For some reason the name conjures up the image of something that’s half-amphibian half-rat.) ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/17 "2003-06-09T14:34:25Z")
You forgot one of my favorites; Hantavirus. I got to work on that one! ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/18 "2003-06-09T14:34:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sunspace \* > \*\*Hey! Anyone wanna trade infectious diseases? We’ll see your Monkeypox and raise you a SARS and a Mad Cow. Still waiting to see who gets dealt the West Nile Virus, but considering the legendarily-voracious insect life of our northern forsts, I haven’t much hope… \*\* Hmm… I’ll trade you some locusts and four horsemen. ---
**Author:** ![CRorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CRorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CRorex)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/19 "2003-06-09T16:03:37Z")
Somebody’s been fucking the monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552/20 "2003-06-09T16:10:37Z")
Well, yeah, but he _swore_ he was clean. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-got-monkeypox/180552.md?page=2)