"Monkeypox and smallpox look identical on physical examination. Have a look at these two photos." ~ Suzanne Humphries, MD

Quotes
"Did you know that by the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, as vaccination rates plummeted, smallpox became a very mild disease often confused with chickenpox?  That's probably not the story you were told... During 1896 a very mild type of smallpox began to prevail in the South and later gradually spread over the country. The mortality was very low and it [smallpox] was usually at first mistaken for chicken pox or some new disease called “Cuban itch,” “elephant itch,” “Spanish measles,” “Japanese measles,” “bumps,” “impetigo,” “Porto Rico scratches,” “Manila scab,” “Porto Rico itch,” “army itch,” “African itch,” “cedar itch,” “Manila itch,” “Bean itch,” “Dhobie itch,” “Filipino itch,” “nigger itch,” “Kangaroo itch,” “Hungarian itch,” “Italian itch,” “bold hives,” “eruptive grip,” “beanpox,” “waterpox,” or “swinepox.”.― Charles V. Chapin, 1913 Charles V. Chapin, “Variation in Type of Infectious Disease as Shown by the History of Smallpox in the United States,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 13, no. 2, September 1913, p. 173." Bystrianyk, Roman

"At that time (1960s) , testing for the (smallpox) virus became more sophisticated. You no longer were suffering necessarily from smallpox. They would test it and find that it had different DNA. You’d have monkeypox or camelpox or some other form of pox. But it was still called variola, which is smallpox. And that’s what monkeypox in Africa is called.  Clinically, the disease is exactly the same as smallpox. It has the same progression. It looks exactly the same. If you put a smallpox victim next to a monkeypox victim, you will not be able to tell the difference. As a matter of fact, with this outbreak of monkey pox in Africa--I think there have been over 500 cases in a very short time".--Meryl Dorley http://www.avn.org.au/

"In turning to recognized textbooks on human virology and vertebrate viruses we find that attention has been given since 1970 to a disease called "monkeypox," which is said to be "clinically indistinguishable from smallpox." Cases of this disease have been found in Zaire, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (by May 1983, 101 cases have been reported). It is observed that " . . . the existence of a virus that can cause clinical smallpox is disturbing, and the situation is being closely monitored."--Dr R. Obomsawin

"Is smallpox history?" (The Lancet, vol. 353, no. 9164, May 8, 1999): "A pilgrim returned home to Yugoslavia from Mecca in February, 1972, with a fever… In the 4 weeks since the pilgrim first had his fever, 150 people were infected across the country. It took 4 weeks before doctors, nurses, and health authorities knew they were dealing with smallpox… 175 people contracted smallpox [thereafter] and 35 died… these events occurred in a well-vaccinated population."

"Poxvirus dilemmas -- monkeypox, smallpox, and biologic terrorism" (New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 339, no. 8, August 20, 1998): "More than 20 years have passed since the last case of smallpox was confirmed… Now, new dilemmas confront the world. Could recent outbreaks of human monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [Zaire] represent the return of another form of smallpox?… The first case of human monkeypox was identified in 1970… The clinical picture of monkeypox resembles that of smallpox in Central Africa."

"Is an old virus up to new tricks?" (Science, vol. 277, July 18, 1997, pp. 312-3): "…an exotic infection …is alarming some public health experts: the largest outbreak ever seen in humans of a well-known virus called monkeypox. A first cousin of the once-dreaded smallpox, monkeypox causes nearly identical symptoms… '…for practical purposes, smallpox is back,' says virologist Peter Jahrling of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease in Fort Detrick, Maryland… 'This could be worse than smallpox if it adapts to humans,' acknowledges virologist Bernard Moss of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)…" Researchers were reluctant to recommend a new vaccination program--which would use smallpox vaccine--for the local population, because the vaccine can cause disease and death in persons with inadequate immune systems.

"Lethal animal pox virus infection in an atopic patient simulating variola vera [smallpox]" (Hautarzt., vol. 42, no. 5, May 1991, pp. 293-7): An 18-year-old patient acquired a cowpox-like virus infection clinically similar to smallpox from a domestic cat as carrier. In spite of intensive care, with…the last available vaccinia hyperimmunoglobulin, the patient died of pulmonary embolism…"

"Variola [smallpox] or a severe case of varicella? A case of human variola due to monkeypox virus in a child from the Cameroon]" (Ann. Soc. Belg. Med. Trop., vol. 71, no. 2, June 1991, pp. 123-8): Human monkeypox was suspected on clinical grounds in a seven year old child in Cameroon. (A selected Medline [National Library of Medicine] "MESH" subject heading is "Smallpox--diagnosis.")

"Human monkey pox: its clinico-epidemiological characteristics" (Zh. Mikrobiol. Epidemiol. Immunobiol. vol. 6, June 1988, pp. 23-30): During the course of the smallpox eradication programme, a new eruptive disease clinically resembling smallpox was discovered in Zaire…the virus can be transmitted from man to man."