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The Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) and the Texas Department of State Health Services have confirmed the first case of human monkeypox in the United States in decades.
On July 15, the patient traveled from Nigeria to Dallas, Texas, where he is currently hospitalized. The CDC is working with local health authorities and the airline to trace passengers who have come in contact with the U.S. resident – although they believe the risk of transmission is low, given that masks were required on the flight , limiting the risk of airborne transmission.
In addition to being from the same family of viruses as smallpox, the symptoms of monkey pox are similar, although milder. The first signs include fever, headache, muscle pain, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion. After that, a rash may develop, probably starting on the face before spreading to other parts of the body.
Most patients will develop mild illness and recover within a few weeks without any treatment, but sometimes it can be fatal. In the strain identified by the CDC, infections will be fatal in about 1% of patients, although this develops in immunocompromised patients. Between one and ten percent of patients die from the disease during epidemics, according to the World Health Organization.
Monkey pox was first discovered in 1958 after several outbreaks in monkey populations kept for research in Africa, according to the CDC. The first human case was recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970. The human version is transmitted widely from animals to humans, rather than from human to human. When it is transmitted from person to person, it is through contact with lesions and bodily fluids, contaminated materials (eg clothing and bedding) and respiratory droplets.
The vast majority of cases have been in the DRC since, where more than a thousand a year have occurred since 1970, reports the CDC. A few smaller epidemics have occurred in Central and West Africa. Only three countries outside of Africa have had cases of the disease – the United States had the largest outbreak with 37 confirmed cases in 2003. It was caused by a shipment of animals from Ghana which included some infected with the disease.
“Human-to-human transmission is believed to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets,” the CDC wrote in its statement. “Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is necessary.”
Over the years, there have been several more cases of passengers carrying monkey pox from Nigeria to their next destination, most of which did not go further. However, an outbreak did occur in the UK where one patient then infected others before they could be contained.
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