How to tell if you have chickenpox or monkeypox

This image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) shows a colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox particles (red) found within an infected cell (blue), cultured in the laboratory that was captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Md. The World Health Organization recently declared the expanding monkeypox outbreak a global emergency. It is WHO’s highest level of alert, but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal. (NIAID via AP)

A pox disease simply means any sort of viral disease characterised by pustules or eruptions i.e. pus-filled bumps on your skin.

In medieval times, the term pox was synonymous with syphilis, as it was rampant then. (“You’ve got the pox!” says a medieval doctor to a medieval sailor.)