What are the initial symptoms of monkeypox?

The symptoms of monkeypox can manifest within five to 21 days following the person has been affected. The majority of people recover within about two or four weeks. The symptoms typically begin with flu-like symptoms, such as headache, fever, muscles aches, exhaustion that can last up to a couple of days. The rash usually appears up to three days following the fever, and progresses from red spots to tiny lumps that appear on your skin. They can later develop into blisters that can become filled with a whitish fluid.

A common rash that covers the body and face and body, including in the mouth, and around the palms of hands as well as the soles of feet. These painful and raised poxes appear filled with fluid and pearly, and are often with red-colored circles. The lesions eventually scab over and disappear over a time of 2 to 3 weeks according to the CDC stated.

The rash may appear similar to syphilis, chickenpox or herpes. It usually is seen on the face, but it can also spread on the hands, limbs and feet, then onto the other parts part of your body WHO experts said. However, experts from the field have discovered some commonalities among cases in recent years.

"We're seeing more cases where the rash begins in the genital area -- which is not new, that has always been there -- but it's more frequent now and sometimes it tends to stay there," the Dr. Rosamund Lewis, Head of the Smallpox Secretariat at the WHO.

This could make the rash less obvious, she explained. Following the discovery that the first U.S. case, the CDC directed health care professionals to watch out for patients who have the typical monkeypox rash.

How is monkeypox spread?

Contact with an infected person is essential for spreading the virus known as monkeypox, experts claim. The infection can be triggered by contact with "broken skin, mucous membranes, respiratory droplets, infected body fluids or even contact with contaminated linen," Neil Mabbott, personal chair in immunopathology at the veterinary college of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in an announcement.

"When the lesions have healed, the scabs (which might carry the infectious virus) can be shed as dust, which could be inhaled," said Dr. Michael Skinner, who is an instructor in medicine at the division of infectious diseases in Imperial College London, in an announcement. Transmission between individuals occurs mostly via large respiratory droplets and since these droplets usually are only about a few feet away, "prolonged face-to-face contact is required," the CDC stated.

"Monkeypox can be a serious infection, with mortality rates from this type of monkeypox virus has been around 1% in other outbreaks. These are often in lower-income settings with limited access to health care," said Michael Head, senior research associate of global health and health care at the University of Southampton in the UK. In the industrialized world, "it would be very unusual to see an