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"This is an unusual event. As far as we can tell, there's never been a human or animal illness in the community setting in the Western hemisphere by a virus that is either a monkeypox virus or a very close variant of the monkeypox virus," said Hughes, who held a hastily arranged telebriefing last evening to announce the outbreak after CDC scientists confirmed that a monkeypox virus or one very close to it was involved.

"We've got a disease that's not been seen before in the Western Hemisphere, so it's prudent to take it very seriously," Hughes said in a telephone interview after the briefing."
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Well, the CDC is taking it seriously.

Remember the West Nile Virus started as a small outbreak also.