A case of monkeypox in Virginia is among nine identified in seven states, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday morning.
Cases have also been identified in California, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, Utah and Washington, said CDC director Rochelle Walensky.
The Virginia monkeypox patient is a woman who lives in northern Virginia and recently traveled to “an African country where the disease is known to exist,” the Virginia Department of Health said in a statement. Officials declined to say exactly where he lives, citing his privacy. .
The woman was not contagious during the trip and is isolating herself at home, officials said. Your close contacts are being monitored and no additional cases have been detected.
“Monkeypox is a very rare disease in the United States. Currently, the patient is isolated and poses no risk to the public.” State Health Commissioner Dr. Colin M. Greene said in a statement.
The woman was tested by a state lab. The results will be confirmed by the CDC, state officials said.
Smallpox is a rare but potentially serious virus that is not commonly found in the United States. A case was confirmed in Massachusetts on May 18, the first case found in the U.S. this year.
The agency said the CDC is monitoring several groups of viruses reported in early and mid-May in countries that do not usually report monkeypox, including North America and Europe.
“We’re telling people this is an emerging issue,” Dr. Agam Rao, a medical officer in the CDC’s Division of Pathogens and Highly Impaired Pathology, told NBC News in a May 19 story. “Some emerging issues end up becoming benign in the end. Others increase. As an emerging issue, we ask people to take this into account right now.”
Smallpox is officially eradicated from the planet, but smallpox vaccine reserves could still be useful against a newly emerging disease: monkeypox. Dra. UCLA epidemiologist Anne Rimoin joins LX News and explains how the smallpox vaccine can be used to prevent smallpox transmission.
Symptoms may include rash, fever, exhaustion, and swollen lymph nodes. Visit the full CDC information here.
A case of smallpox was confirmed last fall in a Maryland resident who had recently returned from Nigeria, state health officials said.
Stay tuned to NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.