Monkeypox is the disease caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the variola family of viruses (same family as the virus that causes smallpox).
The first traces of human cases of monkeypox dates back to 1970 to a 9-month-old boy in the Republic of Congo. Ever since then, monkeypox cases have been confined to the Central and Western African regions. It was only in 2003 that monkeypox cases began to emerge outside of Africa: the first instance of which was in the USA, where there were cases amongst pets. Fast forward to 2022, more than 15,000 cases have since been discovered in several countries within the year, including the UK, India, Spain, Australia and Singapore.