Monkeypox – United States
- July 18, 2021
- < 1 min read
A case of human monkeypox has been reported in a United States resident who traveled from Nigeria to the United States.
The person is hospitalized in Dallas, and the CDC is working with the airline and state health officials to contact the airline’s passengers and other people who may have been in contact with the patient, who traveled in the flights Lagos, Nigeria, to Atlanta on July 8, arriving on July 9, and Atlanta to Dallas on July 9.
Due to the use of masks by the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of spreading monkeypox through respiratory droplets to other people on airplanes is considered low.
Photo: Smallpox virus, a close relative of Monkeypox – Electron micrograph.
Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that mostly occurs in Central and West Africa. The disease is similar to smallpox and involves blistered skin but it is often milder. Humans can be infected by an animal via a bite, or by direct contact with an infected animal’s bodily fluids. The virus can also spread from human to human, by respiratory (airborne) contact or by contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.
The smallpox vaccine can protect against monkeypox.
The virus was first identified in 1958 among laboratory monkeys. The first cases in humans were found in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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