CDC Monitoring 200 people in 27 states for Monkeypox

CDC Monitoring 200 people in 27 states for Monkeypox

Last week, I reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning that a U.S. resident who visited Nigeria came home with a case of monkeypox.

The man, who remains unidentified, traveled through Atlanta’s busy airport before returning to Texas, and the agency was busy tracking down potential contacts. Reports indicate the CDC identified 200 people have been identified and started monitoring them for an infection.

The CDC is monitoring more than 200 people in 27 states for possible exposure to monkeypox, after they were in contact with a Texan who contracted the rare disease in Nigeria earlier this month.

No additional cases of the smallpox-related disease have been detected in the US, according to Stat.

State and local health officials are working with the feds to monitor the individuals who were in contact with the monkeypox patient and follow up with them daily until July 30, according to the website.

Additional details are now coming out about the man and his condition.

The man, who has not been named, was returning from Lagos, and had stopped in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 8 and 9 on his way to Texas – nearly a week before being diagnosed with the rare disease.

Monkeypox causes a blistering skin rash and feverish flu-like symptoms. It can be transmitted through respiratory droplets and body fluids.

After being diagnosed, the man was placed into isolation at a hospital where authorities say he is in a stable condition.

Public health officials are stressing that full recovery can happen with proper treatment despite the “pox” in its name.

The symptoms include:

• Initially fever, headaches, swellings, back pain, aching muscles and a general listlessness.
• Once the fever breaks, a rash can develop, often beginning on the face then spreading to other parts of the body, most commonly the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
• The rash, which can be extremely itchy, changes and goes through different stages before finally forming a scab, which later falls off. The lesions can cause scarring.

Most cases of the virus are mild, sometimes resembling chickenpox, and clear up on their own within a few weeks.

Perhaps what should trouble us more is that a Beijing-based veterinarian became the nation’s first human infection case with the Monkey B virus (BV, also known as herpes B virus) in China.

He has died.

The 53-year-old male vet, who worked for an institution researching on non-human primates, started showing early-onset symptoms of nausea and vomiting in April. The vet died in May raising concerns amid the existing coronavirus pandemic.

It said that there were no fatal or even clinically evident BV infections in China before, and therefore, the vet’s case marks the first human infection case with BV identified in China.

First identified in 1932, the virus is learnt to have infected only 50 people till 2020, of which 21 died.

Humans become infected after an infected monkey bites or scratch them. The virus can also be transmitted to humans when an infected monkey’s tissue or fluid lands on broken skin or in the eyes, nose, or mouth. Additionally, exposure to the brains, spinal cords, and skulls of infected monkeys has also resulted in transmission.

The good news: At least the laboratory in Wuhan wasn’t involved.

The bad news: Who is to say the monkey brains won’t be in a local wet market?

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