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Chronological
developments The disease, related to smallpox, is endemic to west and central African rain forests where human-to-human transmission is not uncommon. Typically, monkeypox patients develop flu-like symptoms and then large, pus-filled lesions. The illness kills between 1 percent and 10 percent of victims. No one has died in the U.S. outbreak, which was discovered in mid-May. So far, more than 60 people in the U.S. Midwest have caught the virus from pet prairie dogs, an infected rabbit, or imported Gambian rats, which are thought to be the source of the first-ever outbreak in the Western Hemisphere. Some of those infected visited a Wisconsin pet store where these creatures were kept, officials said. One prairie dog, an animal that has become a popular pet, was responsible for more than half the 34 confirmed or suspected cases in Wisconsin, calling the animal a "super-shedder" of the virus. The Decatur Daily Democrat, an Indiana newspaper, reported this week that as many as 20 children in a day-care center in the town of Berne may have been made ill with monkeypox after exposure to a sick prairie dog. A spokesman for the Indiana State Department of Health would not confirm the cases. Most people recover from the untreatable illness after about two to four weeks. The U.S. government has recommended limited use of the potentially dangerous smallpox vaccine for those with possible exposure to monkeypox and banned trade and transport of the affected rodent species Case No. 1
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