The U.S. has identified its first monkeypox case this year, after a series of new cases have been reported in Europe.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said on Wednesday that a man who recently traveled to Canada was infected with the virus, which rarely appears outside central and western Africa. The patient was hospitalized and is in good health, the department said in a statement, and his case does not pose a risk to the public.
Before this, the U.S. had not detected monkeypox since 2021. There were two cases that year: a person in Maryland and a person in Texas.
Since the beginning of May, monkeypox has been identified in the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal. The U.K. has detected nine cases of which nine are among men who have sex with men. The first of those reported to be reported as May 7 was a man who had recently traveled to Nigeria. Portugal has confirmed five new monkeypox cases and is investigating more than 20 new cases. All of the patients are men, the country's health ministry said in a statement. Spain also issued a national alert Wednesday after 23 people in Madrid showed symptoms consistent with monkeypox.
Monkeypox can be passed easily from person to person, but there are several ways it can spread. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the transmission of large respiratory droplets occurs mostly through the exchange of large respiratory droplets during prolonged face-to- face contact. The spread of the disease can be spread by direct contact with bodily fluids, lesions or items they touch, like clothing or bedding.
Animals such as rodents can also pass the virus to humans through bites or scratches. Preparing meat from wild animals is another avenue of exposure, the CDC said.
Public health experts have raised questions about monkeypox, because monkeypox is not considered a sexually transmitted infection, as a result of the recent pattern of cases among men who've had sex with men.
According to Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser of the U.K. Health Security Agency, "We are particularly urging men who are gay and bisexual to be aware of any unusual rashes or lesions and to contact a sexual health service without delay if they have concerns."
Monkeypox has been infecting people since 1970, and most of the cases have been concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria. The poxviruses family includes smallpox, which is also included in the family of poxviruses. The illness can be fatal in some cases, though it is usually mild. According to the CDC, around 1 in 10 people who contract monkeypox die in Africa.
Most people recover well after two to four weeks.
The illness starts with flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches and exhaustion. Patients often develop a rash within a few days of the fever - usually on their face first, then on other parts of the body, including genitalia. The rash progresses to lesions that fall off.
Because of its symptoms, monkeypox can sometimes get confused with chickenpox, syphilis or herpes. A distinguishing feature of monkeypox is the fluid-filled blisters called vesicles on the palms of the hands.
Many of these global monkeypox cases are occurring within sexual networks, Inger Damon, a poxvirus expert and director of the CDC's Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said in a statement. Healthcare providers should be alert to any rash that has features typical of monkeypox. We want the public to contact their healthcare provider if they have a new rash and are concerned about monkeypox. The Massachusetts health department advises doctors to consider monkeypox as a potential diagnosis if a person meets the following criteria:
In the last 30 days I have travelled to a country with recently confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox.
Is there a person with confirmed or suspected monkeypox in contact with them?
Is a man who reports sexual contact with other men?