CDC Warns of Monkeypox Spread in United States — 21 Cases Now Confirmed
GoLocalProv News Team
CDC Warns of Monkeypox Spread in United States — 21 Cases Now Confirmed
Federal officials said they are working to curtail the spread of monkeypox by raising awareness among healthcare workers and communities that may be at higher risk of the disease.
Cases have now been detected in 11 states, including next door in Massachusetts. The MA case was the first confirmed case in the U.S. this year.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAt least 16 of the U.S. cases were people who identify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. Monkeypox isn’t considered a sexually transmitted infection, the CDC said.
It can be passed through close contact with an infected person, including through respiratory droplets and skin lesions. The CDC has said anyone can be infected with monkeypox.
“The high proportion of initial cases diagnosed in this outbreak in persons who identify as gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men might simply reflect an early introduction of monkeypox into interconnected social networks,” the CDC said.
NBC News is reporting that there are at least two genetically distinct monkeypox variants circulating in the U.S., according to new sequencing data from the CDC.
Although the CDC hasn’t sequenced all the confirmed U.S. cases yet, two of them were found to be genetically similar to a 2021 infection in a Texas man who traveled to Nigeria.
Both are in people who recently traveled to Africa — a woman from Virginia and man from Florida, found the agency
The rest of the sequenced U.S. cases resemble the genetic codes of the cases in Europe, and a 2021 infection in a Maryland resident who traveled to Nigeria.
Animal Contact Warning
Health officials in the United Kingdom are urging monkeypox patients should avoid any contact with their pets for 21 days.
There have been 106 people in the UK who have been confirmed as infected with the virus.
Gerbils, hamsters and other rodents could be particularly susceptible to the disease and the concern is it could spread in the animal population.
"The worry is the virus could get into domestic animals and essentially ping-pong between them and humans," Prof Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick told the BBC.
Banning Sale
The BBC reports that the Nigerian government has banned the sale of bushmeat as a precaution to stop the spread of monkeypox.
"Six cases have been detected in the country this month bringing to 21 the number of confirmed infections this year, the authorities said. Experts say it is possible that the virus can be caught by eating meat from an infected animal. But this is not the most common transmission route," reported the BBC. Most of the cases has resulted in a confirmed death.
In Nigeria, it occurs mostly in remote areas, near tropical rainforests.
The country has had sporadic cases since an outbreak in 2017. The virus was found mainly in the south of the country but, since 2020, it has spread to central, eastern and northern areas, according to the World Health Organization.