The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has confirmed on Wednesday the United State's first case of monkeypox virus infection..The adult male had recently travelled to Canada..Preliminary testing was completed late on Tuesday at the State Public Health Laboratory in Jamaica Plain. Final testing was completed today at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)..DPH is working with the CDC, local health boards, and the patient’s healthcare providers to trace the patient's recent contacts and anyone who may have been in contact with the patient while he was infectious..The case poses no risk to the public, in general. The individual is hospitalized and in good condition.Portugal, Spain and the UK are all announcing cases of monkeypox infection..Portuguese authorities said they have found five cases of the rare monkeypox infection..The five Portuguese patients are all stable. There are 15 other suspected cases in the country who are all male living in the region of Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, the Portuguese health authorities said..Spain’s health authorities are investigating 23 potential cases, Madrid region health authorities said in a statement. The investigations came after after Britain put Europe on alert for the virus..Spanish health authorities said the virus is not particularly infectious between people and that most people infected recover within a few weeks. It is possible though to develop a severe infection..Nine British men have also been diagnosed with the rare tropical virus since the first patient was confirmed on May 6. Experts are concerned, however, that dozens more may have already contracted the virus..It has been reported four of the nine cases, in the UK, including the two confirmed Wednesday, are gay or bisexual men. UK officials said the pattern of transmission is "highly suggestive of spread in sexual networks.".The ongoing UK outbreak of monkeypox began on 29 April 2022 with the presentation of monkeypox symptoms in a British resident who had travelled to Nigeria, where the disease is endemic. The individual then returned to the United Kingdom on 4 May, importing the index case of the outbreak into the country.."The infection can be spread when someone is in close contact with an infected person — however, there is a very low risk of transmission to the general population," UK Health Security Agency said in a statement Saturday..Dr. Ibrahim Soce Fall, the World Health Organization’s assistant director-general for emergency response, said the spread of monkeypox in the UK must be investigated to understand how the disease was being transmitted among the men..Fall said health authorities need to establish a better understanding of how monkeypox spreads in general, even in the countries where it is endemic..Fall said that while there were more than 6,000 reported cases in the African Congo and about 3,000 cases in Nigeria last year, there are still “so many unknowns in terms of the dynamics of transmission.”.Monkeypox is a disease caused by the monkeypox virus. First identified in 1958 as a pathogen of cynomolgus monkeys, it is an orthopoxvirus with a clinical presentation similar to mild smallpox..The infection is a zoonotic viral disease — a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals — that occurs primarily in remote villages of Central and Western Africa close to tropical rainforests where there is frequent contact with animals that carry the virus..Monkeypox is usually transmitted to humans from rodents, pets and primates through contact with the animal's blood or via a bite..In humans, monkeypox is similar to smallpox, although it is often milder. Unlike smallpox, monkeypox causes lymph nodes to swell. The incubation period for monkeypox is approximately 12 days..The illness begins with fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, a general feeling of discomfort, and exhaustion. Within one to three days after the onset of fever, the patient develops a bumpy rash, often first on the face but sometimes initially on other parts of the body..The lesions usually develop through several stages before crusting and falling off..In the US, 47 people were infected with the virus in 2003 in an outbreak traced to a shipment of small mammals from Ghana sold as pets. There was a smaller outbreak in Britain in 2018..A vaccine developed against smallpox has been approved for monkeypox. Also, several anti-virals appear to be effective.
