The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). On the contrary, monkeypox is related to the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae.
While the SARs-CoV-2 infection spreads from one person to another through direct contact i.e. through aerosol droplets of an infected person, according to the WHO, monkeypox can be spread through close contact, with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin, or mucosal surfaces such as in the mouth or throat.
As far as severity from monkeypox illness is concerned, Kurt Krause, Otago University biochemistry professor in an interview with Newshub says, “Monkeypox can be serious but generally speaking, the outbreaks that occur involve a few hundred people and they fizzle out because the virus isn’t transmitted that readily from one person to another.”
Also read: Monkeypox virus: Four new cases; warning signs to watch out for
He further adds by saying that monkeypox has a fatality rate of around 1%.
Comparing it to COVID-19, he says, “”It looks like the cases are the west African strain, so that would be in the lower group, but it’s so much different from coronavirus in that it’s so much less transmissible and once you get to the pox stage, it’s quite apparent.”
“The COVID-19 fatality rate is about a third to half of a percent depending on which strain. Omicron is a little bit less than that, Delta was about that rate,” he adds.
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