GETTING AHEAD OF MONKEYPOX: Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic experience to prevent the potentially new monkeypox pandemic.

As the caseloads of monkeypox virus (MPXV) infection are steadily increasing worldwide, the World Health Organization has recently declared it a global outbreak. There are no specific drugs or vaccines against monkeypox, however, smallpox vaccines and smallpox antivirals could be used to prevent a global MPXV pandemic. This editorial examines some of the currently employed prophylactic and therapeutic strategies against this virus. Additionally, information on former and newly established surveillance methods like the Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network (SCAN) have been examined as a way to improve surveillance against MPXV and how best to utilize knowledge learned from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to prevent potential twin viral pandemics.