If monkeypox is only spread by sexual contact, why is it called monkeypox?
Both AIDS and Monkeypox came from monkeys.
Maybe the solution is for folks to stop diddling monkeys…
Re:”If monkeypox is only spread by sexual contact, why is it called monkeypox?”
It was first discovered in a colony of research monkeys in 1958. Monkeys are not even thought to be a natural reservoir (which is African rodents), although they can catch it and transmit it.
The first human case was not discovered until 1970, in the Congo basin. Back then, it only affected small children who had not been vaccinated for smallpox after it was declared eradicated. As time went on, the ages went up as unvaccinated people grew up, although it remained fairly rare.
Sexual transmission is a new thing. It was mostly caught by people handling “bush meat” in Africa or by those in close contact with someone who had it (handling soiled laundry and bedding that had come in contact with oozing putules, etc.).
Once it managed to get into a particularly promiscuous segment of the homosexual population, it spread like wildfire at gay raves and orgies. So far, this outbreak has stayed within that community. It’s not that easy to catch.