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The appearance of several outbreaks of monkeypox in the United States, Canada, Australia and several countries in Europe brought to the memory of humanity the terrible disease that for centuries devastated lives. Smallpox is one of the deadliest diseases that ever lived, and studies of Egyptian mummies suggest it may have been circulating among us for at least 3,000 years. In the 20th century alone, it is estimated that smallpox killed about 300 million people.

  Fortunately, smallpox became the first disease eradicated in history more than 40 years ago, when the World Health Organization (WHO) certified its end in 1980, after a successful global vaccination campaign. Now, monkeypox is causing the biggest outbreak of the disease ever seen in Europe. Scientists are investigating what's going on. At the moment, medical authorities say that the chances of an uncontrolled transmission are low and point out that its lethality is far from that caused by human smallpox. Experts point out that monkeypox is much milder and less contagious than the human version of the disease.

Next, understand the differences between the two viruses, which belong to the same Orthopoxvirus family:

Mortality How deadly is monkeypox? This is the main question that many ask themselves when they hear about an unknown disease. Especially if she shares a name with one of the deadliest in history. "Fortunately, monkeypox is much milder than the human version of smallpox," explains Raúl Rivas González, professor of microbiology at the University of Salamanca in Spain, to BBC News Mundo (the BBC's Spanish-language news service).