May 18 – The Massachusetts Department of Health said on Wednesday it had confirmed a single case of monkeypox virus infection in a man who recently traveled to Canada.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said its labs confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the infection was monkeypox.
The state agency said it is working with the CDC and relevant local health authorities to conduct contact tracing, adding that “the case poses no risk to the public and the individual is hospitalized and in good condition.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada issued a statement late Wednesday saying it is aware of monkeypox cases in Europe and is closely monitoring the current situation, adding that no cases have been reported at this time.
Found primarily in West and Central Africa, monkeypox is a rare viral infection similar to human smallpox, albeit milder. It was first recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1970s. The number of cases in West Africa has increased over the past decade.
Symptoms include fever, headache, and skin rashes that start on the face and spread to the rest of the body.
The Massachusetts agency said the virus doesn’t spread easily between people, but transmission can occur through contact with bodily fluids, monkeypox wounds, items such as bedding or clothing that have been contaminated with fluids or wounds, or through respiratory droplets after prolonged exposure -face contact.
No monkeypox cases had been identified in the United States earlier this year. Texas and Maryland each reported one case in 2021 in people who had recently traveled to Nigeria.
The CDC also said it is tracking multiple clusters of monkeypox that have been reported in several countries including Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom over the past two weeks.
A handful of cases of monkeypox have recently been reported or are suspected in the UK, Portugal and Spain.
Earlier on Wednesday, Portuguese authorities said they had identified five cases of the infection and Spanish health services said they were testing 23 potential cases after Britain alerted Europe to the virus.
European health authorities have been monitoring every outbreak of the disease since Britain reported its first case on May 7 and has since found six more in the country.
Reporting by Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Juby Babu in Bengaluru