It might be time to grant the monkeypox virus a new name. Although the virus (mpox for short) was first detected in lab monkeys in 1958, the original host or reservoir has remained unknown.
Identifying the reservoir is crucial, because it gives epidemiologists targets to help control outbreaks. For the monkeypox virus, experts need to shield people from the fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus), which lives in the forests of West and Central Africa.
Mystery Monkeypox Source
A team of scientists first posted a paper describing their findings on the preprint server Research Square. The researchers pinpointed the mpox source as the bushy-tailed rodent by observing a group of wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in Taï National Park (Côte d’Ivoire). In early 1993, about a third of the observed group there was infected by the virus and four infants died.
The scientists scoured the primates’ hunting area and eventually found an mpox-infected fire rope squirrel carcass less than 2 miles from the mangabey territory. They sequenced mpox genomes from both monkey and squirrel and found them identical.
Next, they pored through old video records of the primates recorded in the park and found footage of a mangabey eating one of the squirrels. Finally, they examined fecal samples from the monkeys prior to the outbreak. Two contained DNA from the squirrel and one also tested positive for mpox.
Human to Human Monkeypox Transmission
The virus, while concerning, didn’t spread far or fast enough to create much of an uproar — probably because transmission was rare, and thought to be only animal to human. That changed when evidence emerged of human-to-human transmission.
It was also largely contained until then, when, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, mpox was documented in over 80 countries outside of Africa, with U.S. cases being reported in all 50 states. In June of 2024, the World Health Organization issued a warning. Soon after, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its own travel warning to countries might be susceptible to the virus.
Read More: What Is Monkeypox and Should we Still be Worried About this Virus?
A History of Monkeypox and Smallpox
Ironically, the rise of mpox could be at least partially attributed to the success of earlier vaccination efforts. After smallpox was largely eradicated through shots, monkeypox slowly became a factor; the smallpox vaccine was at least partially effective in stopping mpox. However, mpox is far less deadly than smallpox.
History shows that smallpox first arose around 1000 B.C. in Egypt and India. It was estimated to kill about 30 percent of the people it infected. Survivors were often left blind, scarred or disfigured.
Even though, by the late 1940s, the U.S. had come close to wiping out the disease here, there were still 10-15 million cases globally, meaning millions a year were still dying from the disease. By the time world health officials claimed to have beat the virus it had killed more people over 3,000 years than any other known disease, including The Plague.
Even though monkeypox is far less deadly than smallpox, knowing where it originates from will help scientists contain, control, and perhaps ultimately eradicate it.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only
Read More: A History of Smallpox Disease and Why It Relates to Monkeypox
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Biological Sciences. Fire-footed rope squirrels (Funisciurus pyrropus) are a reservoir host of monkeypox virus (Orthopoxvirus monkeypox)
Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
