Monkeypox - a dangerous zoonosis.

摘要

The migration of people and the transport of animals beyond their natural environment result in the more and more frequent transfer of some diseases from one continent to another, outside epidemic areas. The last epidemic among people of an illness caused by an animal virus is 81 cases of monkeypox in the USA up until June 2003. This is the first case of the epidemic of this sickness observed in the northern hemisphere. Most cases of the disease occurred after patients had been bitten or scratched by prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), commonly kept as pets in American homes. It has been proven that the animals became infected from imported Ghana rodents, African rats that constitute a natural reservoir of the virus.