Monkeypox Symptoms: What happens if you get monkeypox?

Monkeypox virus is a double-stranded DNA, zoonotic virus and a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus in the family Poxiviridae. It is one of the human orthopoxviruses that includes variola, cowpox and vaccinia viruses.

Variation in virulence of the virus has been observed in isolated from Central Africa where strains are more virulent than those from Western Africa.

The two areas have distinct clades of the virus, termed Congo Basin and West African clades.

What happens if you get monkeypox?

In humans, the symptoms of monkeypox are similar but milder than the symptoms of smallpox. Monkeypox begins with fever, headache, muscle aches and exhaustion.

The main difference between the symptoms of smallpox and monkeypox is that monkeypox causes lymph nodes to swell while smallpox does not.