Several of the children from The Connexion's Bethesda Orphanage in Sierra Leone have been poorly recently, and Issa, one of our Bethesda children who is now attending university, caused some alarm when he suspected he'd contracted monkeypox.

Mpox (previously known as monkeypox) is a rare infection most commonly found in parts of central and east Africa. 

Thankfully, however, Issa's condition has since been diagnosed as chicken pox, and he is now recovering well. 

Mpox usually takes between 5 and 21 days for the first symptoms to appear:

high temperature (fever)
headache
muscle aches
backache
swollen glands
shivering and chills
exhaustion
joint pain

A rash usually appears 1 to 5 days after the first symptoms. It can be on any part of the body, including the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, mouth and genitalia.

The rash is sometimes confused with chicken pox. It starts as raised spots, which turn into sores or small blisters filled with fluid. The blisters eventually form scabs which later fall off. The symptoms usually clear up in a few weeks, but during infection mpox can easily be passed on to other people.

So on this occasion, we give thanks that Issa has chicken pox!

The green 'paste' visible in the picture, applied to his chicken pox blisters is a herbal remedy, to aid with healing and hopefully reduce itching!