BJN Awards 2019: infection prevention nurse of the year—runner-up

Monkeypox is a rare zoonotic infection, causing a human disease similar to, but usually milder than, smallpox. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2015), in Africa, monkeypox has been shown to cause death in as many as one in 10 persons who contract the disease.

Symptoms typically begin with fever, headache, muscle ache and swollen lymph nodes. Within one to three days of the fever a rash appears, often beginning on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body. Lesions progress through different stages—namely macules, papules, vesicles, pustules and scabs—before falling off. The illness typically lasts between two and four weeks and the incubation period ranges from five to 21 days. The virus is known to be spread via respiratory droplets and through contact with fluid from the vesicles or pustules.

In September 2018, an adult male who had recently travelled to Nigeria was admitted to Blackpool Victoria Hospital with groin lesions and a fever. Cases of monkeypox outside of Africa are extremely rare. Indeed, the only other cases to be reported occurred in the USA in 2003 and were linked to exposure to infected animals that had been imported from west Africa as pets (Bernard et al, 2006).