Newsman: A possible monkeypox case has been reported in New York City. A day after the Massachusetts authority reported a monkey pox case, health officials in New York City reported monkey pox as the possible case. Seven countries are currently investigating possible cases of monkeypox as of Thursday evening, including the United States. Canada on Thursday reported 17 possible monkeypox cases. Several countries in Europe are reporting outbreaks. There are 22 suspected cases being investigated in Spain, 20 in Portugal, seven cases in the United Kingdom, one in Italy and one in Sweden.
“Mainly those cases are men that have had sexual relationships with other men, ages between 35 and 50 years old,” Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal’s public health director, said during a news conference on Thursday. “The clinical presentation is mainly ulceration of oral and genital parts that are painful with a phase before the eruption with fever, sweating and headaches.”
Most of the patients appear to have ulcerative lesions, rash, swollen lymph nodes often accompanied by fever, chills, headache, muscle pain and tiredness. Anyone experiencing these symptoms should reach out to their health care provider.
Monkeypox is one of a family of more than nine viruses that includes smallpox, one of the most deadly diseases to ever infect humans, killing about one in three people who got it before it was eradicated in 1980, considered one of the greatest public health achievements of all time.
No source of infection has yet been confirmed, according to the World Health Organization.
While most cases of the disease come from contact with wild animals, not human-to-human contact, health authorities are investigating how the new surge in cases is spreading.
Some of the cases appear to have spread between sexual partners and it appears all the reported cases are in men so far.
Monkeypox is not a disease of monkeys but instead lives in small rodents mostly in central and west Africa. The rodents infect monkeys and both can pass it along to humans.
The last large outbreak in the United States was in 2003 when small mammals shipped from Ghana to Texas, including rope squirrels, tree squirrels, African giant pouched rats, brush-tailed porcupines, dormice, and striped mice, were all shown to be positive for monkeypox.
Prior to this, all but one case of monkeypox outside of Africa was the result of either confirmed or suspected animal-to-human transmission, according to a paper published in February in the journal “PLOS: Neglected Tropical Diseases.”
The only human-to-human transmission case was between a health care worker in the United Kingdom who cared for a patient there.
