by Mike James

Monkeypox is an infectious viral disease that can occur in humans and some other animals. Symptoms include fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that forms blisters and then crusts over. The time from exposure to symptoms can be between five to twenty-one days, and the symptoms usually last two to four weeks.

The origin of the disease is believed to be from animals. The disease most likely enters the human population from contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or cutaneous or mucosal lesions of infected animals. In Africa, monkeypox virus infection has been found in many animals, including rope squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice, different species of monkeys, and others. It is important to note all these animals are considered biblically unclean (Leviticus 11). Eating inadequately cooked meat and other animal products of infected animals is a possible risk factor. People living in or near forested areas may have indirect or low-level exposure to infected animals.

Monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first outbreak outside Africa was in 2003 in the United States, and the source was believed to be infected pet prairie dogs. The largest outbreak ever of monkeypox has occurred just this year. Over 70 countries worldwide have reported monkeypox cases. Approximately 10,000 cases have been reported in the United States.

Once monkeypox enters the human population, it can be transmitted by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets, and contaminated materials such as bedding.

On August 5, the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its monkeypox advice, suggesting people most at risk (men who have sex with men) "take a temporary break" from those behaviors to help "contain…the outbreak."

Now, why are men who have sex with men most at risk? It's because they are more promiscuous than other categories of people who have sex. Notice the language the CDC used to try and mask what they are talking about. "A rave, party, or club where there is minimal clothing and where there is direct personal, often skin-to-skin contact has some risk. Avoid any rash you see on others and consider minimizing skin-to-skin contact."

Homosexual sex columnist Dan Savage has criticized the public health response to monkeypox. Savage believes public health officials should have more forcefully advised gay men to change their sex habits at the start of the outbreak in May. Some experts believe the outbreak was exacerbated by large festivals in Europe with rampant sexual activity back in May.

It's always important to check history, so we don't repeat similar mistakes. Let's not forget when HIV/AIDS first came on the scene, many spoke about it as a gay disease. We soon learned that not just homosexual men died from the disease. Many gay men do not just have sex with gay men—they also have sex with women.

During the HIV/AIDS crisis, many women got the virus from men who lived double lives, having sex with men as well as women. Other men who had sex with men in prison returned home to infect women they had relationships with. And let's not forget about the large number of people who contracted HIV through drug use and the sharing of needles.

Living life as humans, we will always be susceptible to various diseases. But one way to help ourselves is to follow God's laws about sexuality and infectious diseases. You can read about these laws in the book of Leviticus.

Luckily for us, monkeypox is not as serious a problem as HIV/AIDS once was. But once again, we see another example of disease entering the human population through animals we should not be messing around with. Once this disease got into the human population, it grew due to activities God speaks against.

But what other diseases might be coming down the road for humanity? We read about the fourth seal in Revelation 6:7-8, which refers to the time just before Christ's return. This seal represents the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse. One of the items he brings to the earth is a plague of a nature we will never have experienced before. I'm not looking forward to that event, but it will soon be followed by Christ's return (Revelation 19:7). We can all look forward to that!

Sources:

"Monkeypox," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeypox

"Monkeypox," World Health Organization, May 19, 2022, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox

"Monkeypox is 'a public health emergency,' U.S. Health Secretary Declares," The Washington Post, by Dan Diamond, August 4, 2022

"CDC Issues Dire Warning to Gay and Bisexual Men," The Epoch Times, by Caden Pearson, August 6, 2022

"Statistics on Sexual Promiscuity Among Homosexuals," by Matt Slick, September 13, 2011, https://carm.org/homosexuality/statistics-on-sexual-promiscuity-among-homosexuals/

"Monkeypox Fight Invites Debate on Limiting Sex," by Fenit Nirappil and Amrita Jayakumar, The Washington Post, August 5, 2022

"We're Seeing Some Familiar Mistakes With Monkeypox," by Rae Lewis-Thornton, The Washington Post, August 9, 2022