ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed Monday that a suspected case of smallpox from a monkey found in a man in the Atlanta subway is actually the virus.
DPH said the man has a history of international travel. The man tested positive for orthopoxvirus last week, which is associated with smallpox and monkeypox.
After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted confirmatory tests, they determined that he had the virus.
The CDC is currently monitoring nearly two dozen confirmed cases of the disease in the U.S. The rest of the cases are in California, Utah, Massachusetts and Florida.
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Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, back pain, muscle aches and low energy. It can also cause rashes and injuries to the face or genitals. The disease can be fatal in up to 11% of people who become infected.
No treatment for the virus is known, but smallpox vaccines and antiviral treatments can be used to help control outbreaks.
Still, health officials say the monkey’s smallpox is much less transmissible than the coronavirus and the risk to the public is low. Many of the cases have been associated with travel and occurred in men.
The disease is endemic to Africa and has not previously caused widespread outbreaks beyond the African continent.
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