One of Ireland's leading immunologists has shared his insight on the monkeypox outbreak currently spreading across the globe.
Luke O'Neill, a professor of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, says the source of the cases is a "scientific mystery".
It comes as the disease has been confirmed in 14 countries already, with at least 20 cases confirmed in the UK.
Speaking to Pat Kenny on Newstalk, Prof O'Neill said: "It's nothing to be too fearful of - all these headlines, of course we're hypersensitive to new viruses aren't we?
"At the moment, the scientific mystery is they can't trace where several people have caught it from.
"The first case was May 7th in the UK - that was someone that came back from Nigeria and must have picked it up there off a rodent, potentially.
"The other people, though... they can't really figure out how those people caught it.
"That's a scientific mystery: we'd like to know where it's come from.
"But it's more than likely human-to-human now... but it is quite hard to catch."
He explained: "You need very, very close physical contact to pick it up - especially with the lesions.
"In fact the main way to transmit it is symptomatic: so someone has a blister, like the classic chickenpox blisters, that's the source of the infection.
"So they must have caught it off someone with a blister".
Prof O'Neill added that sex could be a way to spread to virus, although monkeypox itself is not a sexually transmitted infection.
"Sex is close contact for a prolonged period... so sex can be a way to transmit it," he said.
"That's only one though - any kind of close contact for a prolonged period of time, you can catch it off someone else who has it".
An antiviral drug discovered about 20 years called TPoxx can be effective in treating the virus, which could be a 'plan B', he said.
The top doctor added that a mutation of the disease, as the world became aware of during Covid, is unlikely.
"It's a DNA virus, by the way, whereas COVID is an RNA virus," he said.
"DNA viruses don't mutate very much anyway, so the chance of it mutating is pretty low."
It comes as the HSE has set up a special multi-disciplinary team to prepare the country for the arrival of monkeypox.
Additionally, a leading British medic has warned that Ireland needs to brace itself for the imminent arrival of the disease.
Michael Head, a specialist in global health at the University of Southampton, believes it is likely already on the way here to Ireland.
He said that they are now seeing evidence of “community transmission” in the UK with 20 cases identified “and likely more to come... it is a nasty virus”.
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
