BOSTON — Massachusetts health officials said they have confirmed a case of monkeypox, the first case of the rare virus identified in the United States in 2022.
The Department of Health said on Wednesday that the infection was found in an adult man who recently traveled to Canada. They say this case poses no risk to the public.
The man, a Massachusetts resident, has been hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital since May 12. He is in isolation and in stable condition. The hospital said because the disease is so rare, it took six days to diagnose him using the CDC.
Read: CDC explains monkeypox
The DPH is working to identify anyone who may have been in close contact with the man while he was contagious.
MGH doctors said the patient had traveled to Canada but had no history of travel to areas with high rates of monkeypox. It is usually found in Africa.
According to the DPH, monkeypox can resemble early flu-like symptoms and turn into lesions that spread across the body. Most infections last between two and four weeks. However, health officials said monkeypox is not easy to spread and the reason they are paying so much attention to this case is because it was not transmitted through contact with an animal or by traveling to areas with high monkeypox cases, but through human-to-human transmission . human contact.
“As we learn more, we urge healthcare providers, particularly those in outpatient facilities, to remain vigilant to potential cases and take all necessary precautions,” said Dr. Sarimer Sanchez, medical director of the Boston Public Health Commission’s Office of Infectious Diseases.
“I would like to emphasize that historically this has been a rare disease with very rare transmission around the world. What we have seen in the UK, Spain and Europe was novel and that gives us cause for concern, but I think it is reasonable for people not to be afraid of monkeypox at this time. The current patient poses no public health risk at this time. People should only be aware of the symptoms but should not be afraid in any way,” said MGH Dr. Paul Biddinger.
“Right now, human-to-human transmission in general has really been through close contact. And that’s close contact via respiratory droplets and prolonged face-to-face contact as well as direct contact through lesions or in direct contact through contaminated bedding or clothing so to speak that’s contaminated with the lesions,” said Dr. Sanchez.
The CDC is tracking multiple outbreaks of monkeypox that have been reported in Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom over the past two weeks. These countries do not typically report monkeypox.
According to the CDC, “It is not clear how people in these clusters were exposed to monkeypox, but cases include individuals who self-identify as men who have sex with men.”
The United States identified two cases of monkeypox in people who had recently traveled to Nigeria in Texas and Maryland in 2021.
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