Fever, then swollen lymph nodes
and then large lesions
forming all over your body.
After more than two years of COVID-19,
the next pandemic might be
spreading around the world.
And you could be one of the first people
to contract it.
Monkeypox is the next virus
everyone is talking about.
And just like COVID-19,
it's zoonotic, meaning it can be
transmitted to you from an infected animal.
It's similar to smallpox,
but it isn't quite that.
Unlike COVID-19,
monkeypox has been around for decades.
Since the 1970s, it's been reported
in Central and West Africa.
And just recently,
the virus made it into the Western world.
One thing that really worries scientists now is that
you don't even have to go to Africa
to get infected.
You see, the world has dealt with
monkeypox cases before.
Some of those infected may have brought it from Nigeria,
which has been dealing with a large outbreak since 2017.
But this time, it's different.
It looks like it could be spread to you
by getting intimate with someone.
Although health authorities aren't sure
how people are catching monkeypox
outside of Central and West Africa,
there is one interesting theory.
It suggests that you could get infected
during sexual intercourse.
Well, before you get excited, science is still unclear
if you could get monkeypox
specifically through sexual transmission.
But you could get it through bodily fluids,
lesions or respiratory droplets
of someone who's already infected.
What scientists do know for sure
is you can contract monkeypox if you come into contact
with an infected animal's body fluids.
And before you start being alert around monkeys,
these primates don't have much to do with spreading the virus.
Monkeypox is typically carried by small rodents
like tree squirrels, rope squirrels and dormice.
If you were carrying the virus, you wouldn't know right away.
That's because monkeypox
has an incubation period between five and 21 days.
When the infection kicked in,
the first thing you'd notice would be a fever.
You'd have a horrible headache, and you'd feel very tired.
These symptoms could last for up to five days.
At first, it wouldn't be really much different
from chickenpox or measles.
Except your lymph nodes would get swollen.
So watch them closely.
After one to three days of fever, things would start getting worse.
You'd experience a rash all over your face, hands and feet.
There's a 70% chance you'd get an eruption
inside your mouth
and a 30% chance the rash
would spread to your genitalia.
It could even affect your eyes.
You could get lucky and only have a few lesions.
Or you could have several thousand of them.
First, they'd look like slightly raised bumps on your skin.
Then, they'd get filled with clear fluid.
In one or two days, this fluid would get yellowish.
And about a week after that, your lesions
would dry up and fall off.
Not too bad, right?
Unfortunately, it could get worse.
It's possible that monkeypox
wouldn't be the only virus attacking your body.
It could come with potentially serious
secondary issues like pneumonia,
encephalitis and infection of the corneas.
And there's not one approved treatment for monkeypox.
Smallpox antivirals can help you treat monkeypox.
But you could manage your symptoms
by drinking lots of fluids and eating well.
You should also make sure
that you're vaccinated against smallpox.
Scientists confirmed that the smallpox vaccine
is about 85% effective at preventing monkeypox.
Other than that, you'd likely be fine after a couple of weeks.
Only some scars on your skin would remain
as a reminder that you'd contracted monkeypox.
Overall, there's no reason to panic
and stock up on toilet paper.
Monkeypox is no COVID-19.
It can't be transmitted across a room.
Plus, monkeypox is nothing new.
We weren't prepared to face COVID-19.
But we have decades of information
on the monkeypox virus and a working vaccine.
So let's not lose our heads over it.
Unless we decided to stop all vaccinations altogether.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.
One more thing.
Special thanks again to Nucleus Medical Media
for providing these incredible 3D animations.
If you want to watch more scientifically accurate medical visuals,
check out their channel linked in the description below.