The World Health Organization urges people to stop attacking monkeys; it won't stop the spread of monkeypox. Apparently an increase in monkeypox in Brazil has led to the poisoning or injury of monkeys at a natural reserve in Rio Preto. From The Guardian:
"What people need to know is that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans," a WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday[…]
But Harris underlined that despite its name, monkeys are not the main transmitters of the disease and have nothing to do with the outbreak. Monkeypox received its name because the virus was first identified in monkeys kept for research in Denmark, but the disease is found in a number of animals, and most frequently in rodents.
While the virus could jump from animals to humans, the recent global explosion of cases was due to close-contact transmission between humans, Harris said. "The concern should be about where it [is circulating] in the human population and what humans can do to protect themselves from getting it and transmitting it," she said. People "should certainly not be attacking any animals".
According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, "monkeypox was discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research. Despite being named 'monkeypox,' the source of the disease remains unknown."
