Ximena Bonilla
When Monkeypox cases started rising in early 2022, there was a flood of TikToks and posts on social media regarding Monkeypox symptoms. People were horrified by the scarring and rashes that would occur. And others shared their stories about getting the virus. However, recently, news articles about the virus have declined. Why is there such a decline in interest now?
In mid-2022 the US and UK faced surging numbers of Monkeypox cases.
Major cities like San Francisco, New York City, Houston, and Chicago have dealt with major blows of the Monkeypox virus. As of September 23rd, there were 24,846 Monkeypox cases in the US. So far California has 4,886 cases.
The Monkeypox virus is most common in West Africa and gets transmitted to humans by animals. Some of these monkeypox-spreading animals are rope squirrels, dormice, and non-human primates. Within 3 weeks of exposure to the Monkeypox virus, symptoms can start to show. Symptoms of Monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle ache, swollen lymph nodes, respiratory problems, rashes, etc. Monkeypox can cause respiratory problems by breaking lung tissues. Swollen lymph nodes can create abscesses that contain puss inside. Monkeypox rashes can leave permanent scars. If a person starts to accumulate a rash in their eye they can become permanently blind.
The Monkeypox virus tends to last anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Monkeypox can be spread through close contact, and pregnant mothers can spread Monkeypox onto their fetus.
As the school year has slowly started progressing, there have been fewer and fewer TikToks on my “For You Page” about the Monkeypox virus. Articles have decreased, and no one has talked about their worries about the Monkeypox virus.
The Monkeypox virus has calmed down since its start in May. There has been a 50% decrease in Monkeypox cases since the beginning of August. Health officials like Dr. Susan Phillip are “cautiously optimistic” about the downward curve of monkeypox cases. She is a health officer for the city and county of San Francisco. People have also started losing interest in the virus because it does not seem as hazardous as Covid. Covid has killed thousands however, monkeypox has so far only killed one person. There are no major aftereffects compared to Covid, which can leave people with holes in their lungs, etc.
Overall, we are slowly starting to stray away from the topic of monkeypox and other viruses.
The Eleight 
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