Name: What Does Monkeypox Do To Your Body?
Uploaded: 2026-02-06T17:05:28.000Z
Duration: 3 min 4 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Modal verbs of deduction & speculation

You may have heard some recent news about the outbreak of a virus.

so far there have been over 100 confirmed or suspected cases in 12 countries outside of the region it originates.

So I'm sure you're wondering what exactly is monkeypox?

And more importantly, how worried should you be?

It belongs to the same genus as smallpox and has similar symptoms that last two to four weeks.

These begin with a fever, headache, muscle aches and exhaustion.

Unlike other pox like diseases, it also involves the swelling of the lymph nodes.

After that, a rash develops on the face and then spreads to other parts of the body, including the palms, soles of the feet and mouth.

This rash evolves from the flat lesions called macules to ones filled with yellowish fluid called pustules before drying up and falling off.

These symptoms are milder for monkeypox than for smallpox, and

the mortality rate is lower as well, at about 1% for the strain we're currently dealing with, compared to 30% for smallpox.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease, meaning it spreads from animals to humans.

It was first discovered in, you guessed it, monkeys in 1958.

The first human case occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, and

the disease has primarily remained in Central and West Africa since then.

Small outbreaks have occurred outside of Africa over the years, but

these cases have occurred after people traveled to these countries or animals were exported from them.

In this current outbreak, scientists have yet to find any links to travel or any other cause, which is why health officials have called it a highly unusual event.

But one pattern they have discovered is that most cases have occurred in men who have sex with men.

While this isn't a sexually transmitted disease, transmission requires close contact.

This happens when the bodily fluids or lesions of an infected individual come into contact with someone's broken skin, respiratory tract, or mucous membranes like the eyes, nose and mouth.

there are effective prevention methods, such as vaccines and the isolation of infected individuals.

And while this virus may seem scary and even a little gross, generally outbreaks are short lived, with most infected people fully recovering.

We can make an updated video on this topic when we know more, and

we'll also try to put updates in the comment section.

But let us know in the comments what diseases you want us to cover next.

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Click here to watch this video on viruses that we did and click over here to watch this video.