Affiliations 

  • 1 Medical Officer, Smallpox Eradication, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 2 Rijks Instituut voor de Volksgezondheid, Utrecht, Netherlands
  • 3 Southwest Foundation for Research and Education, San Antonio, Tex., United States
  • 4 Senior Virus Research Officer, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 5 Research Institute of Virus Preparations, Moscow, USSR.
  • 6 Laboratoire national de la Sante publique, Paris, France
  • 7 National Institute of Health, Tokyo, Japan
Bull World Health Organ, 1972;46(5):625-31.
PMID: 4340222

Abstract

In connexion with the recent detection of cases of monkeypox in man in West and Central Africa, the frequency of monkeypox outbreaks in monkeys since 1958, when the disease was first recognized in captive animals, has been investigated. Special incidence surveys were made for this purpose. During the last 3 years, a serological survey has been conducted to find natural foci of monkeypox virus, and a total of 2 242 sera from monkeys of different species from various parts of Africa and Asia have been examined for poxvirus antibodies. The survey failed to detect any significant indication of poxvirus infections. The observations suggest that although a few human cases of monkeypox have been identified, monkeypox in the natural environment is not widespread and is perhaps localized in small areas.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.