FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP/WSVN) — There are now two “presumptive” cases of monkeypox is being investigated in South Florida, state health officials said.
Health officials in Broward County and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced their first investigation, as well as potential exposure in the community, on Sunday.
Then, on Monday, a second presumptive positive case of monkeypox was discovered. The person has been isolated and the risk of exposure remains low. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is monitoring the situation.
The first case appears to be related to international travel, and the risk to the community is low, the Florida Department of Health in Broward County said in a news release.
The person is in isolation, and local Department of Health officials were notifying people who may have been exposed to the patient, the news release said.
The health agency provided no further details about the case.
Monkeypox is a virus that originates in wild animals like rodents and primates, and occasionally jumps to people. Most human cases have been in central and west Africa, where the disease is endemic. Monkeypox is rarely identified outside of Africa, but as of Friday, there were 80 confirmed cases worldwide, including at least two in the United States — one in Boston and one in New York — and another 50 suspected ones.
“The number of people in different places have all seemed to come down with it at the same time, and for some of them, there’s not an obvious link as to where they got it from,” said Brian DeHaven, Ph.D., an assistant professor at LaSalle University.
“This is bizarre,” said Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert at Florida International University.
Most patients only experience fever, body aches, chills and fatigue.
“The first symptoms are the worst headache you can imagine, you get a fever with swollen lymph nodes,” said Marty, “and those lymph nodes, by the way, are one big distinguishing thing between monkeypox and smallpox.”
People with more serious illness may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body.
“The rash starts on your face, the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet, which is uncommon,” said Marty.
The Florida Department of Health said in its news release that risk of exposure is low since its requires contact with lesions or items that have been contaminated by lesions.
On Sunday during his first public comments on the disease, President Joe Biden said, “They haven’t told me the level of exposure yet, but it is something that everybody should be concerned about. We’re working on it hard to figure out what we do and what vaccine may be available for it.”
Biden went on to say, “It is a concern in the sense that if it were to spread, it would be consequential.”
Contact tracing is currently underway regarding the presumptive case in Broward.
Health officials said the disease requires prolonged close contact with someone who is infected in order to be transmitted.
For more information about monkeypox, click here.
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