U.S. health officials found an outbreak of the monkeypox virus in the Western hemisphere ,which is a smallpox-like disease spread by rats and monkeys ,but rarely fatal to humans and may have infected at least 28 people in 3 Midwest states. Monkeypox is virtually unknown outside of Africa and has never before been found in North America. The symptom are like smallpox ,though monkeypox is less infectious and they rarely kill.

If one develops a fever and has enlarged lymph node and blister on their body,one must look for a small indentation amid the blister as darkened indentation in the middle of a blister means that one has small pox, cow pox,swine pox ,chicken pox or monkey pox. The CDCP reported that prairie dogs at a Chicago pet distributor were likely infected with the virus by a giant Gambian rat, which is found in African countries.

Prairie dogs are a type of wild rodent which live in holes and are sometimes kept as pets or traded by the North American animal dealers. 13 people suspected of the virus were around prairie dogs, one was handling a sick rabbit which had been around a prairie dog. So no human to human transmission.

The monkeypox virus in humans is not generally fatal and when the disease first appeared the doctors thought it to be smallpox.But scientists eliminated that possibility and they linked up between people and prairie dogs. Monkeypox's incubation period is around 12 days and human mortality rate in Africa has ranged from one to 10 %, but the virus may be treated with an antiviral agent originally developed for treating AIDS.