Virus by another name

Nepal should start preparing for a fight against the monkeypox right away.

If we had started to think that we were headed towards the end of the virus problem with a relative fall in the number of Covid-19 cases worldwide, we seem to be reaching a conclusion too early. There seems to be no respite from the "new" normal of maintaining physical distancing as countries across Europe and North America report cases of monkeypox transmission. For the uninitiated, monkeypox is a transmissible disease quite similar to smallpox, but it is considered less severe and less infectious. However, its mildness should not fool us into believing that we can get away with minimum disruption, the same mistake we committed in the early days of Covid-19. As of now, the monkeypox has spread to over 16 nations outside Africa, the largest outbreak outside the continent in 50 years; and several European countries including the United Kingdom and Belgium have issued advisories for patients to self-isolate themselves for three weeks.