Monkeypox outbreak in the United States: what you need to know



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The United States is experiencing a limited outbreak of the monkey pox virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently confirmed that in mid-July, a Texas man who had traveled from Lagos, Nigeria to Atlanta, Georgia, contracted the disease. The CDC is monitoring more than 200 people the man has been in contact with and asking them to quarantine for about three weeks.

Monkey pox is commonly found in the rainforests of Central and West Africa and is carried by animals, including primates. The disease usually begins with fever, muscle aches, chills, and swollen lymph nodes, and then develops into a full-fledged rash of smallpox-like blisters.

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“If left untreated it can have very serious effects, including death, although this is very rare,” said Chad Neilsen, director of infection prevention and control at the University of Florida. Health Jacksonville.

The CDC said the strain of the virus that infected humans from Texas has a death rate of around 10%.

Severe cases can be treated with antiviral drugs, such as cidofovir. However, the use of antivirals is off-label because it has not been widely tested in humans with the monkey pox virus. Antivirals have been shown to be effective against monkeypox virus in laboratory and animal tests.

The monkey pox virus is not as contagious as the coronavirus. It is believed to be primarily a bloodborne pathogen, which means it is transmitted through bodily fluids. Humans get it from animal bites and scratches or from handling animal droppings.

It is possible that monkeypox could be spread by inhaling respiratory droplets like the coronavirus, but Nielsen said this was unlikely, given the slow spread of monkeypox.

“The Texas case appears to be an isolated case, where the person interacted with a potentially infected animal,” Nielsen said. “I would expect only one or two cases to spill over from this at most.”

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A previous outbreak of monkey pox in the United States in 2003 infected 47 people. It was linked to animals such as rodents and prairie dogs that were delivered to pet stores, where people were likely infected while handling the feces of these animals.



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